Environment & Safety Gas Processing/LNG Maintenance & Reliability Petrochemicals Process Control Process Optimization Project Management Refining

Management

Consider both actual and virtual spare parts inventory

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

Globally, hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI) facilities operate hundreds of thousands of fluid machinery assets. The various service-specific internal components of these assets are supported by ma..

HP Reliability: Manage your time constructively

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

We often view ourselves as very efficient reliability implementers. Yet, as professional engineers, we take action to save time, accomplish more and reduce stress by applying better time-management sk..

HP Integration Strategies: Asset information management improves life cycle benefits for equipment

ARC Advisory Group: Rio, R.

Traditionally, the various production management and asset management systems in the hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI) and other heavy industries resided in silos with separate management, archite..

HP Engineering Case Histories: Case 72: Interaction between disciplines when troubleshooting

Consulting Engineer: Sofronas, A.

When troubleshooting, we can become fixated on the discipline that we are most familiar—in the author’s case, mechanical engineering. Investigating the failure of a machine may have a group ..

HP Industry Perspectives: US-based ultra-low-sulfur gasoline rule released

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Romanow, Stephany

In late March, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the long-awaited ruling for ultra-low-sulfur gasoline, also known as the Tier 3 rule. This proposed rule lowers the sulfur content ..

HP Impact: Global oil flows shift from West to East

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

By 2020, crude oil trade flows west of Suez will drop by 4.2 MM bpd, while crude flows east of Suez will rise by 4.7 MM bpd (Fig. 1), according to a recently published report from ESAI Energy. The pri..

Shale energy resources driving resurgence for ethylene industry

IHS Markit: Eramo, M.

The abundant supply of North American shale energy resources is proving to be not only a boon for exploration and production (E&P) companies and energy consumers, but it is also changing the profitabi..

North American olefin producers riding the shale gas wave

With the prospect of abundant low-cost ethane, several producers have announced intentions to build new ethylene capacity.

High-pressure polyethylene: Reemergence as a specialty chemical or not?

Nexant: Farrell, L.  |  Virosco, J.

The analysis results indicate that, while investment capital for new plants favors LLDPE, plant profitability—which is a function of product slate (revenue) and cost—is, in many cases, higher for LDPE plants.

HPI Focus: New vs. debottlenecking projects

Fluor: Turner, J.
SNC-Lavalin, Hydrocarbons & Chemicals: Luck, G.
MVS Consulting LLC: Van Sickels, M. J.

As most owners do not have adequately skilled engineering teams to study these scenarios, engaging an experienced, qualified engineering contractor to support the conceptual study is often warranted.