The off-site operations in a typical refinery involve the movement and storage of raw materials, intermediate and finished products from tanks to processing units and vice versa. This operation is often termed as Oil Movement and Storage (OM&S). Any control automation of processing units provides consistent product quality, better conversion yields, stable and safe operations and results in big tangible and intangible benefits such as overall plant efficiency, better usage of planning and scheduling and management information systems, etc. However, the implementation of an automation system for the Oil Movement & storage system requires to carry out an accurate cost and benefits analysis for its economic justifications as there are both tangible and intangible benefits and they must be explored thoroughly. This paper discusses methodology to analyze the OM&S operational data and calculate tangible benefits related to automation of material movement in a refinery.
The paper discusses briefly an over-all strategy for the implementation of OM&S automation systems and highlights its salient features.