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Supply chain optimisation
Integrated planning and scheduling system helps Thai complex meet market demand
Thai company PTT Aromatics and Refining Public Company Limited (PTTAR) has implemented a series of supply chain planning programs to help optimise the planning and scheduling of crude oil feedstocks and product options for its refining and petrochemical operations. Recently formed by an amalgamation between two petrochemical plants and an oil refinery, PTTAR needed to integrate the systems of two former companies. The new supply chain planning programs will help PTTAR to choose between different feedstocks and assess the most economic options for the sites.
The programs are based on industrystandard planning and scheduling software, which Shell Global Solutions has configured to PTTAR’s requirements. They use a mathematical linear programming model that represents the different options for processing a crude oil through a refinery to the finished product and a condensate through an aromatics process to the finished product. The models are complex owing to the thousands of different variants and constraints, and the many different types of crude available for processing.
Using an algorithm that can find a solution in a matter of minutes, the models recommend the types and quantities of crudes to process, based on the refinery’s economics. They suggest a price band at which a particular cargo is economic to buy, taking into account the company’s technical capability.