ERTC Advisory Board Meeting Report

IMO Regulations Implementation Report

The tighter sulphur limit creates major ramifications for both the oil refining and shipping industries. Seeking to measure perceptions of how well these industries are adapting to this changing IMO regulatory regime, WRA recently conducted a survey of professionals within the refining and other industries. This Survey Report is a summary of the results, along with additional perspective from IMO and a consultant who closely tracks this evolving situation.

Digitalization Report

More than just buzzwords, the increasingly sophisticated technologies tied to these terms are revolutionising the products and services many businesses provide and how they can deliver them.

Refiners and petrochemical producers are no exception. They are deploying digitalization at their refineries, petrochemical plants, and other facilities to obtain data unprecedented in richness and use it to enhance performance.

We recently surveyed our global database and have spoken with stakeholders including:

• Fuad Al-Ansari, Vice President Information Technology (IT) division, Takreer
• László Keresztury, Head of Technology and Development, MOL
• Eric Duchesne, Senior Vice President and Acting Chief Technology Officer, Total

To discover the main challenges and opportunities associated with Industry 4.0, download the report here:

THE FUTURE OF THE MIDDLE EAST DOWNSTREAM SECTOR

The steady decline in world crude oil prices from their highs of above $110 per barrel in mid – 2014, to the sub – $40 level – at the end of 2015 – is providing the Middle East’s downstream sector with an almost unprecedented opportunity to expand.

For decades, much of the focus within the region has been on the upstream oil and gas sector. But now, attention is turning to refined oil products and petrochemicals as the ability to benefit from better profit margins as cheaper feedstock becomes more evident.

Those Middle East oil companies that years ago had the foresight to invest heavily in the downstream sector, now find their decisions vindicated. In 2015, they were able to gain some partial relief from the collapse in crude oil revenue, through higher downstream margins.