Who Does What?

Hello,

So this week is going to be a bit different from the past few weeks.  Rather than focus on the actual optimization of oil refineries, I feel it is important to have a post on the industry as a whole, and more specifically on Fluor’s position within it.  Some of this will be slightly similar to what I have put in in other posts, but those posts never focused on industry.  For this reason I hope to paint a clearer picture than I have regarding this topic.

So where does this fit into my research of oil refinery optimization?  Well, outside of expanding upon the company I worked at, it also will help to show how the industry operates.

Within the oil refinement industry (or at least the part of it that matters to this project) there are three main groups of companies.  These include oil companies, licensors, and project management companies (Fluor falls into this group).  What do each of these groups do?

Let’s start with the oil companies.  As discussed in a previous post, their main job is to make money.  Opinions on that aside, they have a financial obligation to their stockholders to do so, and by not working to maximize profits they would risk the company moving towards failure.  Luckily for me, this in many ways is what drives optimization of oil refineries in the first place.  

Onto the licensors.  These guys generally have a product or technology that they have created that they then license out to be used in an oil refinery.  Tough to figure out where their name comes from huh?  They do contribute more to the process than just licensing though.  These companies also consult as to how their technology can best be implemented in the refinery.  I have thoughts that this also helps them to make sure their product is in the best place to succeed, thereby making their company look better, but that is just a thought and is by no way confirmed (thought it was interesting to share though).

And the most important group to the project is the project managers (definitely not biased here).  Fluor is in charge of planning and managing the project as a whole.  They have to decide how to revamp and/or design a refinery based on the agreed to budget.  Fluor will also bring in the licensors they need for the necessary technology to achieve the desired optimization.  This does mean that Fluor does not have the ability to make the final decision though, as the oil refinery decides how much money they are ultimately willing to spend as they are the client Fluor is working for.

Anyways that is the general overview of the players within the oil refinery industry, and it was one that was fascinating and exciting to work within.  Thanks for reading.

Stephen