Solomon Announces New Research Report Providing Insight into the Workings of the World’s Best Refineries

DALLAS – 15 February 2016 – HSB Solomon Associates LLC (Solomon), the leading performance improvement company for the global energy industry, announced today the publication of a new research report, developed by Solomon’s Strategic Advisory Services group led by Michael Hileman, that looks into the characteristics, work practices, and performance metrics of the World’s Best (WB) Refineries. Whether you are a Solomon benchmarking client or not, you can now take advantage of this research and insight.

“This report should be a challenge to every refinery in the world. We found that almost any typical size and complexity refinery can be a WB Refinery. Members of the WB group covered a wide range of capacity and complexity,” said Hileman, a Solomon Vice President. “The power and knowledge locked up in our database of real operating data is amazing.”

Clients can find value from this report in several areas:

• Helps put Solomon metrics in the right perspective by showing it is not always best to be in the first-quartile (Q1) range of performance.
• Encourages the typical, average refinery that they can achieve WB status if they are well experienced in the business of refining, and willing to improve and learn.
• Highlights the few key things that must absolutely be in place to achieve WB performance.

Solomon understands that clients—both large, multinational companies and small, single-refinery operations—use our Comparative Performance Analysis™ (CPA™) study results to help kick off the annual strategic planning process. “When a refinery participates in our benchmarking studies, Solomon already knows more about their performance gaps than any other outside advisor. With deep analysis papers, like the World’s Best Refineries, we can also help with target setting and creating a roadmap to success,” Hileman added.

Solomon’s analysis is different, because we have the data. “We collect an average of 3,000 pieces of data from more than 350 refineries for our benchmarking study. We have established definitions and standards to help ensure the data is passed to us on the same basis. Then we thoroughly review the data for accuracy. When you have a ‘clean set of data’ on a consistent basis, relationships emerge that you could not see before,” said Jon Stroup, Vice President, Refining Studies and member of the World’s Best analysis team.

Stroup has more than 25 years’ experience working in the refining industry in various operations, maintenance, and technical roles at numerous refinery sites. In his last 7 years with Solomon, Stroup has applied his industry knowledge to help Solomon’s refining clients maximize the use of Solomon’s CPA™ studies through presentations, seminars, site evaluations, consulting projects, and workshops. He is currently responsible for all activities related to Solomon’s biennial Worldwide Fuels Refinery Performance Analysis (Fuels Study) and Worldwide Paraffinic Lube Refinery Performance Analysis (Lube Study), and other related services. Stroup is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from the University of Tulsa.

Hileman has more than 3 decades’ experience working in and analyzing the petroleum industry, and he applies that knowledge to helping Solomon clients around the world improve their performance. He is currently responsible for Solomon's Strategic Advisory Service offering along with his responsibilities for Planning & Optimization (P&O). Hileman also serves as project executive for major consulting engagements. Before joining Solomon in 1996, Hileman worked for a diverse range of organizations, including Atlantic Richfield, Charter Oil Company, Champlin, and Ultramar, Inc. He is the author of U.S. patents on methods for determining equivalency factors and has published articles on optimizing assets and utilizing best practices to optimize assets. Hileman has a BS in Chemical Engineering from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

This report does not contain data for any individual refinery or individual company. Solomon remains 100% committed to the promise of confidentiality made to study participants. We will never publish, display, or otherwise present data in a fashion where the data of an individual refinery or company can be identified, back-calculated or otherwise discerned by a third party.