04-09-2018

KBC announces the availability of Chevron’s PETRO LP technology

KBC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yokogawa Electric Corporation, today announced the availability of Chevron’s PETRO LP (linear programming) technology for all refining and petrochemical customers. PETRO is made available under the terms of a reseller agreement between Yokogawa and Chevron.

Through this agreement with Chevron U.S.A. Inc., KBC licenses PETRO software and provides implementation services, including change management and capability development services through the application of world-class best practices and organizational alignment. 
“Effective economic optimization of hydrocarbon supply chains can boost profitability by more than $40 million per year for a typical oil refinery,” stated Walt Szopiak, Vice President Downstream Technology and Services at Chevron Energy Technology Company.  “At Chevron we have quantified over $10 billion of savings from the use of PETRO since the first version was created about 30 years ago,” he added.
 
KBC offers PETRO as an integrated component of its Petro-SIM® simulation and Visual MESA™ Supply Chain Scheduling (VM-SCS) portfolio.
· Petro-SIM uses rigorous chemical and physical science to accurately model refinery and petrochemical processes over a wide operating window and is used extensively for both process design and operating performance management.

· VM-SCS allows plant personnel to schedule and simulate operations on an integrated supply chain topological model, easily identifying possible imbalances between interdependent operations.

· PETRO uses distributed recursive LP technology to give advice to traders on optimal bids for feedstocks; processes thousands of variables to arrive at the most valuable operations parameters and the most economic mix of products to produce, buy or sell; and provides analysis used in discussions with environmental agencies to evaluate different future regulation scenarios.  Compared with conventional planning tools that use standard LP technology, PETRO excels at solving problems at a global (multi-unit) level.

In combination, Petro-SIM will act as a Digital Twin of the plant, continuously connected to real-time plant data sources in order to faithfully maintain a calibrated accurate model of the plant.  From time to time it will check the linear models in PETRO and automatically update them to match the linearized current operating envelope.  Planning scenarios from PETRO based on up to date linear models will output to VM-SCS which will validate feasible and optimal schedule taking account of all upcoming commitments and constraints.

“We are delighted to be able to offer this technology from Chevron to our customers to bring new value in their molecular management and value chain optimization activities,” said Andy Howell, CEO of KBC.  “The addition of PETRO to our portfolio means our customers can really benefit from an end-to-end, integrated solution, which brings together leading technologies and deep subject matter technical and commercial expertise.  This allows our customers to take the long awaited next step in their Digitalization strategies unlocking the enormous amount of trapped value in their supply chains.”

PETRO is available from KBC immediately. Interested parties may contact KBC directly or channel enquiries through their local Yokogawa affiliate.