Solomon Achieves Record Fuels Study Participation

Chinese Refinery Participation Up More Than 360%

DALLAS, TEXAS USA, April 24, 2019--With nearly 130 refineries either built in or starting up in China, its downstream presence is critical to understanding global refinery performance. Solomon Associates, author of its own prestigious Worldwide Fuels Refinery Performance Analysis, also known simply as its Fuels Study, has put significant resources into bolstering Chinese participation for its latest study for operating year 2018. As a result of this effort, the number of Chinese refineries sharing in the study has increased 360%—almost fourfold the region’s participation in the 2016 study.

This enhanced, confidential data set will now inform the Fuels Study currently underway, making it the most comprehensive study yet. As the industry becomes increasingly global in breadth, and as competitive pressures grow and commodities markets fluctuate, it’s more important than ever to have access to high-quality, high-resolution data with which to manage operations and make effective strategic decisions.

Why Benchmarking?

Many operators use internal benchmarking to evaluate their performance year over year, but to be truly competitive requires an understanding of how performance metrics compare among peers, within regions, and even worldwide. Solomon’s Fuels Study sets out to equip refineries with that data.

As more refiners participate, the Fuels Study analytics grow even more robust. There’s now enough participation from China to provide strong regional analysis to help Solomon’s Chinese clients better evaluate their performance with respect to their region and to the world. While all refinery data is confidential, the resultant analytic trends and analysis can prove invaluable to study participants seeking to optimize operations and build strategies for continuous improvement.

Answer Key Questions

Fuels Study participants aren’t simply sharing and receiving data. The process is designed to move the needle for the world’s refineries as they seek more efficiency, lower costs, and optimal performance. It helps answer critical questions refineries have about the state of their operations and how to improve both day-to-day tasks and their bottom line, such as:

How reliable are my refinery facilities?
How does my equipment utilization compare with others? Are my operating expenses comparable with similarly equipped facilities.
Do my facilities produce a competitive gross margin based on my utilization and complexity?
How do I compare to the global industry with regard to the cost of producing transportation fuels?

Put Results to Work

By answering these questions, refineries unlock a competitive advantage that only external benchmarking can offer. Participants receive aggregated peer group results, detailed gap analyses, historical trend results, and data tables accounting for every metric, as well as a company-specific presentation and final study report.

Data from customized peer groups defined by the Solomon Fuels Study help assess where your refinery performance stands, including areas in which it is falling short among analogous facilities. Equipped with this data, you can eliminate shortfalls with targeted planning and implement initiatives intended to close performance gaps.

Join the Study

The window for participating in this year’s study is coming to a close soon, but there’s still time to join your peers and gain powerful insights into your business. Join the 320+ refineries across all regions of the world that use the Fuels Study to identify improvement opportunities and uncover competitive advantages.