2022 AFPM Summit: Excellence in Plant Performance
The AFPM Summit kicked off Tuesday morning in San Antonio, Texas.
The Summit is AFPM's premier technical conference dedicated to improving plant-wide performance in the refining and petrochemical industries. Sessions are led and attended by engineers, managers, operators and leaders across the downstream sector. This year's conference will feature the following technical tracks: Maintenance, Hydroprocessing, Crude/Coking, FCC, Sustainability, Alarm Management, Artificial Intelligence, Unit Reliability, Digitalization, Turnaround, Alkylation and Emerging Leaders.
In Tuesday morning’s Welcome Address, Chet Thompson, AFPM President and CEO, spoke to an audience of more than 1,300 attendees and echoed their excitement at being together at the first in-person Summit.
“This event is all about operational excellence,” Thompson said. “The women and men in this room keep our facilities running at peak performance, our people and communities safe, and our industries always moving forward.”
Thompson stressed the successful efforts of the industry during the challenging times during and following the COVID-19 pandemic, complimenting the attendees on their efforts to continue operations when most businesses shut down or shifted to remote work. “You continued to refine the fuels that were needed to keep our battered economy going, to power our first responders and delivery trucks, and to keep our homes warm. And you shifted your operations to manufacture the petrochemicals that were critical to our fight against the virus,” Thompson said.
Thompson stated that the U.S. refining sector ran – and is still running – at over 90% utilization, and through especially difficult global conditions. “You did this because your teams are part of your family, your most important assets, and because you know that you thrive only when your people and communities thrive,” Thompson said. “You didn’t do it for an ESG statement or to get attention, but rather because it was the right thing to do.”
U.S. refiners and petrochemical manufacturers are committing tens of billions of dollars and pioneering new technologies to increase efficiency and reduce emissions from operations and products. AFPM member companies are supporting and investing in carbon capture technologies more than ever before. Beyond myriad individual investments, many companies are working together to support large-scale deployment of this technology. Thompson cited one proposed project in Houston, supported by many AFPM members, which is projected to safely capture and store about 50 MM metric tpy of CO2 by 2030 and about 100 MM metric tpy of CO2 by 2040.
“Our members are also continuing to shrink their own energy footprint through the deployment of lower carbon energy sources to power their operations,” Thompson said. “Our petrochemical manufacturers have continued to scale advanced recycling technologies that are completely redefining what is possible through recycling.
“Never have the demands – and spotlight – on our industry been greater. As we’ve come out of COVID, demand for our products has climbed, yet our refining capacity has been reduced by more than 1 MMbpd. This means that we are running our facilities harder than ever before to keep up with U.S. demand and fulfill the increased needs of our allies abroad.”
Thompson concluded, “That’s what is at the heart of this conference – providing an opportunity to bring all disciplines together to learn from each other and discover new strategies and technologies that, collectively make us stronger and ready for what’s next.”
Lifetime Service Awards. Following Thompson’s address, two stalwart contributors to AFPM and the petrochemicals and refining industry were honored with Lifetime Service Awards: Willis Jernigan (left), Director, Safety & Health, Flint Hills Resources LLC; and Jeffrey Zurlo (right), Strategic Marketing & Commercialization Manager, Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions.
Comments