BP: Refining Opportunities Keith Zink Cherry Point Refinery Coker Engineer 2001 CSM Graduate (CEPR)
About Me Graduated from CSM in 2001 (CEPR) Contract Process Design Engineer (5yr) BP Chevron Conoco Phillips Shell (Equilon, Texaco) PetroStar Energy Engineer at BP Cherry Point Refinery (3yr) Delayed Coker Unit Process Engineer
About BP 1. Some Mobil employees became part of BP staff post dissolution of JV in Europe 2. BP acquired some Belgium assets
BP U.S. Downstream Business Units Cherry Point Refinery Whiting Refinery Toledo Refinery Carson Refinery Texas City Complex Refining and Manufacturing
Downstream Refining and Marketing Refining receives the crude oil Produced by E&P and upgrades it to valuable products. Gasoline is the largest product from refining, but others include hydrogen, natural gas, jet fuel, diesel fuel, asphalt, coke, elemental sulfur, motor oil, and chemical feedstocks. Marketing is the most visible Link between our company and the general public (consumer) and focuses on providing the highest quality gasoline in conjunction with convenience retailing. BP is the second largest marketer of gasoline in the U.S.
Raw Crude vs. Refined Product 100 Percent of B arrel 80 60 40 20 Fuel Gas, LPG Gasoline Jet Fuel Diesel Gasoil Coke 0 Raw Crude Refined Crude
Cherry Point Refinery
Cherry Point Refinery 2 nd Newest Refinery in the U.S. Designed to run 100 kbd ANS Crude, currently capable of 230+ kbd ANS supply on decline, so working to diversify crude feed capabilities Economies of scale in action large, single train equipment so reliability is critical. Industry leader in operating costs. A lot of exciting projects going on: ULSD upgrades ~$1B in capital investment over next 5 years
Career Paths for Engineers Technical Ladder: Become a technical expert in one or more fields. Lead technologists assist globally to help solve the most challenging problems. Management Track: Many opportunities for engineers to pursue roles at various levels of management. Commercial: Opportunities in the realm of production planning and/or our supply and trading organization (IST).
Engineer s Responsibilities First and Foremost - License to operate: Ensure your unit is safe and operating in an environmentally responsible manner. Nothing is as important as ensuring that everyone goes home safe at the end of the day.
An Engineer s Duties Serve as general technical resource to operations. Provide technical support and troubleshooting to the units. Ensure that unit operates within environmental permit limitations. Help develop and implement capital projects and best practice procedures to improve process operation. Understand and communicate impacts of decisions on Company, Refinery, & Operations goals. Monitor the performance of the fractionation towers, catalysts, material balances, product specifications, reactor yields, and energy consumption to optimize performance. Provide engineering support for turnarounds. Provide technical training and coaching for process operations staff.
About Cokers Most crudes yield a heavy fraction called : resid Left over from Crude unit after easy stuff removed. Made up of heavy long chain hydrocarbons and large aromatic rings Limited practical commercial usage: asphalt, Asphalt demand limited to seasonal usage and roads. Coking developed to upgrade lower value resid to higher valued liquid products. Coking is a growing technology. Started in the 1930 s and still a large part of the future in refining. Several technologies but delayed coking most popular. Available crudes are getting heavier yielding more resid. Heavy crudes generally cheaper due to limited global coking capacity.
How it works Reaction Basics A delayed coker is operates as a semi-batch process. This is a conversion unit: We are converting molecules based on two different processes: Cracking Hydrocarbons (diesel, stove, gasoline, lpg, and fuel gas) Condensation or polymerization - Coke Overall this is an endothermic reaction with needed energy provided by two large fired heaters. Reactions are a function of temperature, pressure, and velocity in the coke drums. Unit rate is limited primarily by the size of the coke drums.
Coker - The Basic Building Blocks Furnaces - the heart of the coker Run length limited by coking in the furnaces Coke Drums Combination tower Fractionates heavier liquid hydrocarbons into diesel (HCGO & LCGO) and stove. Gas treating Wet Gas Compressor Lighter hydrocarbons fractionated into gasoline (Hvy/Lt Naphtha), lpg and fuel gas. Provides as much as 70% of the consumed fuel gas in the refinery. Blowdown Recover vent gas and minimize impact to environment.
Prefractionator (combination) Dehex (gas treating) Stabilizer Structure Heaters
Coker Furnaces Supply heat for reaction. Resid heated from 700 F to 935 F (coking temperatures). Condensation/Thermally cracking reactions begins. 1 furnace per pair of drums. 2 furnaces total Tube velocity and heat input rate critical Operation outside specified conditions could result in coked furnace tubes High oxygen content in burner box promotes better heat distribution Coke must be removed from a furnace every 6 months to 1 year by mechanical pigging called decoke
Coker Drums Where the majority of the reaction occurs. Separation of Coke and liquid hydrocarbons. Thermal cycling limits drum life. (amb temp to 900 deg F) CP coker approximate 27. 5 ft diameter by 100 ft T-T Piece of equipment that usually limits unit rate. Drum schedule Drum steam-out (45 minutes) Cooling water (4 hours) Vent/Drain (1.5 hours) Unhead (0.5 hours) Drill (3 hours) Head (0.5 hours) Steam Purge & Pressure test (3 hours) Warm-up (2-hours) Switch into drum for Coking (16 hrs)
A Semi-Batch Process
Coker Fractionation Heat required for fractionation delivered by coke drum effluent entering the bottom of the fractionator. Products from heavy to light in tower: Heater feed Heavy gasoil Light gasoil (diesel) Stove (Kero) Naphtha Fuel gas Fractionation in a harsh environment Coke formation Carry-over Pump around loops exist to remove heat from tower Heat integrated for energy efficiency
What can go wrong? Drum foam overs Shot Coke Bottom/Top De-Heading Drilling (hot spots) Drum overfill Coked ovhd fouling Combination tower fouling Safety Moment - 1998 Equilon DCU Fatalities
TAR Busiest Time At A Refinery
TAR: A Chance To Get Your Hands Dirty.
Attention To Detail Will Make Your Job Easier
Crude Scheduling at a Glance ANS supply on downtrend, so working to diversify feed by processing more alternate crude: WAF Arab Sours Escalante (mostly for coke properties) Canadian Heavies Scheduling requires carefully managing: Crude receipts and logistics; constrained by dock outages, limited storage, crude compatibility, and even the weather! Total crude inventory not too low, not too much. Product quality specifications (from diesel TAN to crude OVHD chlorides to calcined coke hardness). Economic optimization / asset utilization. Provide input to crude purchasing decisions & strategies.
Tips For Finding a Job In Refining Internships- Provide valuable experience and insight to industry which aids in discussion during interviews; however, not essential. Heat and Mass Transfer, Fluids, Kinetics, Process Control, Petroleum Refining, Gas Processing, Process Design, Economic Evaluation..all the good stuff! Communication skills - Essential to get anything done at a refinery Background knowledge about Oil industry. Willingness to take on new challenges and work as a team to meet them.
Why build a career with BP? Excellent colleagues World leader in trading Pioneer in clean fuels Strong push for innovation Global opportunity Challenging & rewarding If interested, register at the CSM career center AND register with BP at: http://www.bp.com/uscollegecareers
Questions?