Palmer International Partnership wins Energy Consultancy of the Year for 2nd year running
Palmer International Partnership LLP was named Energy Consultancy of the Year (performance improvement) in the Petroleum Economist Awards 2016 for the second consecutive year.
Managing partner Nick Palmer was presented with the award by Petroleum Economist Managing Editor Michael McCaw at a gala dinner, held at the Banking Hall in the City of London.
The awards celebrate the people, companies and projects which epitomise the best in the energy industry. In the Energy Consultancy of the Year category, the focus is on “delivering excellent strategic or operational advice, to deliver measurable improvement in performance”.
Palmer International Partnership’s expertise in helping hydrocarbons companies to get the best performance from their facilities clearly impressed the judging panel of Abdalla El Badri, former Secretary General of Opec; Torstein Indrebø, Honorary Secretary General of the IGU; and Malcolm Graham Wood, Founding Partner of HydroCarbon Capital. In particular, the company’s achievement in improving the economic viability of a world-scale naphtha cracker. By improving the planned design to deliver an increased EBITDA of $140m per year. The lead bank and investors deemed this sufficient to validate the project’s economic viability.
“We are obviously proud to win such a prestigious award for the second consecutive year,” said Nick. “It is a recognition of the quality of work delivered by my team and gives us the motivation to continue adding value to the industry”
Palmer International Partnership wins Energy Consultancy of the Year
Palmer International Partnership LLP was named Energy Consultancy of the Year (performance improvement) in the Petroleum Economist Awards 2015.
Managing partner Nick Palmer was presented with the award by Petroleum Economist Editor William Powell at a gala dinner, held at the Banking Hall in the City of London.
The awards celebrate the people, companies and projects which epitomise the best in the energy industry. In the Energy Consultancy of the Year category, the focus is on “delivering excellent strategic or operational advice, to deliver measurable improvement in performance”.
Palmer International Partnership’s expertise in helping hydrocarbons companies to get the best performance from their facilities clearly impressed the judging panel of Abdalla El Badri, Secretary General of Opec; Torstein Indrebø, Honorary Secretary General of the IGU; and Malcolm Graham Wood, Founding Partner of HydroCarbon Capital and acclaimed industry commentator. In particular, the company’s achievement in saving one refinery $30 million a year by introducing a new hot water belt for collecting heat from various process units to pre-heat deaerator feed water.
“We are obviously proud to win such a prestigious award,” said Nick. It is fantastic for our company to be recognised in this way and serves to underline our achievement and commitment to improving energy efficiency and performance in the hydrocarbons market.”
Palmer International Partnership shortlisted for IChemE Global Awards
Palmer International Partnership LLP has made it through to the final stages of the IChemE Global Awards 2015.
The company is shortlisted in the Oil and Gas category for its project entitled, ‘Saving Energy, Boosting Yield’. The winner will be announced on Thursday, November 5 at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole.
The IChemE Global Awards celebrate excellence, innovation and achievement in the chemical, process and biochemical industries. This year the awards attracted 500 entries from 40 countries, 100 of which made the shortlist for the 16 categories.
This is the second awards shortlist to include Palmer International Partnership – last month the company was named as a finalist for Energy Consultancy of the Year in the Petroleum Economist Awards 2015.
Palmer International Partnership Managing Partner, Nick Palmer said: “To make two shortlists against stiff competition from around the world is a fantastic achievement. The IChemE Awards attracted a record number of entries this year and for us to be selected is a real accolade and recognition of the work we have done to boost the energy efficiency and performance of our clients.”
In engineering design more is just more
Less is more is a concept that is generally lacking in the field of engineering where the design philosophy seems often to make things more complex than they need to be.
I was reminded of this during a recent project for an oil refining client in the Middle East. It was the design of a piping system at the bottom of a column for transferring a stream through a series of heat exchangers into a downstream furnace. By well- established convention, the system would be designed for the highest possible flow rate and pressure drop of the system, with an allowance of an additional 30% of the total pressure drop for the control valve. This sets the pump (usually a centrifugal pump) differential pressure requirement.
If the pump was selected according to the commonly used API 610 standard, it would have to develop the differential pressure with an impeller diameter of 90% of maximum – to allow for possible future debottlenecking. The pump manufacturer would then offer the next frame size up in his range. All of this additional “up-sizing” would pile on the inefficiencies. Continue reading…
Enhancing Refinery Profitability
Services
Services
Palmer International Partnership LLP helps clients to identify, develop and implement the most effective projects for their business and achieve the best performance from within upstream and downstream sector facilities.
PIP LLP offers a wide range of services such as providing expert assistance to improve the performance of existing assets and also plan and configure new projects through to completion and start-up. We also provide due diligence advice for mergers and acquisitions.
Our services include:
Smart Projects
Energy typically represents the highest single operating cost in Downstream facilities. Our “Energy Plus” program identifies high return, low investment projects that will not only save energy but also realise additional benefits, thereby meeting the client’s investment criteria. Some examples:
- Recover waste heat from the refinery process systems to the de-aerator in the neighbouring power station via a hot water belt. Saving 30M$/yr for 20M$ investment.
- Revamp crude unit to process additional import residue to feed to an expanded FCCU while simultaneously improving energy efficiency of the crude unit. Generated additional 70M$/yr for an investment of 150$
Total Project Architecture
We create the project blueprint and stay through engineering development, execution and commissioning to ensure the project goals are achieved.
Key features:
- Provide experts in strategic planning and facilities configuration, including support facilities as well as process, to give the highest possible project value.
- Can incorporate “Clean tech” design in a cost-effective and timely way.
- Assist client to ensure smooth start-up and to establish optimum operation at the earliest opportunity.
Palmer International Partnership wins Petroleum Economist Award nomination
Palmer International Partnership LLP has been shortlisted for Energy Consultancy of the Year in the Petroleum Economist Awards 2015. The winner will be announced on Thursday, September 17 at the Banking Hall in the City of London. The Petroleum Economist Awards celebrate innovation and originality, sound business practice and commitment to environmental protection. In the Energy Consultancy of the Year category, the focus is on “delivering excellent strategic or operational advice, to deliver measurable improvement in performance”. Palmer International Partnership Managing Partner, Nick Palmer said: “We are delighted to be included on the shortlist for this prestigious award. This nomination is a testament to our commitment to improving energy efficiency and performance in the oil and gas industry.”
Could an oil refinery be as smart as your phone?
During a recent visit to a newly-built oil refinery in Asia, I was struck by the large quantity of data collected, which the operators and engineers were then asked to review. Unfortunately, they ended up with mountains of paper which actually didn’t tell them very much, let alone what they could do to boost the refinery’s performance, which evidently is the point of collecting all these data.
The refinery management had the same problem – Plenty of data but they have no idea what to do with it. Continue reading…
“Smart” projects the key to boosting refining margins
Refiners hit by the drop in the price of crude oil should look to “Smart” performance improvement projects to rescue depressed margins.
That is the view of Dr Chin Kin Ong, Principal Consultant at Palmer International LLP. Writing on the company’s website www.pipllp.com/blog, he said that the current state of the market had forced many oil and gas refiners to cancel or delay multi-billion-dollar investment projects.
“At a time when budgets are tight, refinery managements will find that “Smart” projects will deliver a high return for relatively low investment,” Dr Ong explained. “They can also help refiners to take advantage of the excess capacity within the EPC fraternity, which had geared up to work on the mega projects.”
He cited the example of how Palmer International engineers were able to save one refinery $30 million a year by introducing a new hot water belt to collect waste heat from various process units to preheat deaerator feed water. All for an investment of just $10 million.
However “Smart” projects are not easy to identify, often requiring a holistic approach. Nevertheless, the results usually speak for themselves.