In a refinery or petrochemical plant, certain equipment can create “gray areas” between process engineers and instrument engineers.
In the wake of Hurricane Florence, businesses across the US had another reminder of how unpredictable and unavoidable disasters are when they strike.
In today’s business and regulatory environment, controlling a refinery or other high-hazard processing plant is increasingly demanding.
In 1982, I wrote an article called “Using process computers as robots for refining operations,” which was published in the May issue of Hydrocarbon Processing.
Embedding machines with artificial intelligence (AI) allows them to learn from their past experiences.
Several major downstream companies have recently embarked upon large-scale digital transformations with anticipated capital spending tallying in the tens to hundreds of millions of dollars.
The operational cost structure of oil and gas companies is very capital- and labor-intensive.
After several years of cutting costs to align to the reality of fewer and smaller capital projects, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firms are now forging ahead as the industry recovers.