Essentials of Refining Training Course
Consultant/Trainer: Danny Peferoen
This course delivers a solid understanding of the fundamentals in oil refining—from crude characteristics to product output and unit interactions. The course clarifies core refining processes, energy utilization, and product quality, bridging technical operations with commercial understanding.
Participants gain a clear view of how refining units impact overall plant performance and profit margins. Ideal for operators, process engineers, schedulers, and commercial professionals, the program turns operational complexity into actionable insight—enabling better decision making and cross-functional alignment.
Participants
All Petrogenium courses can be tailored for awareness/inexperienced staff, for intermediate and for experienced personnel. Furthermore courses can be customized for a specific refinery, plant or unit. The option for post-course consultancy/help-desk support is also available.
Participants may include: new oil refining personnel and professionals who work in the downstream Supply & Trading, Marketing, IT, Legal, Finance and Human Resources functions. Staff from other industries (e.g. catalyst manufacturers, equipment manufacturers, IT service suppliers, business consultants) who have business interface with the oil refining sector will also highly benefit from this course.
Learning Objectives
After completion of the course participants will have solid understanding of:
- who refinery customers are and what products they require
- to identify the main and specialty products manufactured and describe their main characteristics, composition, etc.
- understand the flow of oil/gas from well via manufacturing plants to finished products in the market
- to explain the various refinery types/configurations and be able to construct a refinery flow scheme by clearly indicating product flows to and from the process units
- the origin of crude oil, characterize the different types of crude oils, explain the concept of crude oil valuation and identify different types of crude oil pricing.
- explain the concepts of refinery costs and margins and be able to give indications of these costs and margins
- identify the main refinery processes (which include distillation, treating, reforming, cracking and product blending), explain the main interfaces between these process units and identify the main elements which may have an impact on the quality of the manufactured products
- determine and explain the influence of feedstock and refinery configuration on product yields, margins (Hydrocarbon and Gross Refining Margin) and product qualities by using a Refining Simulation Model
1st half day (4h)
- Introductions
- Welcome, safety, arrangement
- Introduction of participants
- Programme & course objectives
- Products, Markets & Customers
- Crude and Feedstocks
2nd half day (4h)
- Refinery Configurations
- Thermal Cracking & Coking
- Fuel Oil Blending
4th half day (4h)
- Fluid Catalytic Cracking & Alkylation
- Hydrocracking
- Hydrotreating
5th half day (4h)
- Reforming & Isomerisation
- Refinery Costs and Margins
- Refinery Yield & Expense Case Study
6th half day (4h)
- Benchmarking
- H2 Manufacturing & Purification
- Refinery Simulation Case Study
- Course review & close out
Programme
1st half day (4h)
- Introductions
- Welcome, safety, arrangement
- Introduction of participants
- Programme & course objectives
- Products, Markets & Customers
- Crude and Feedstocks
2nd half day (4h)
- Refinery Configurations
- Thermal Cracking & Coking
- Fuel Oil Blending
4th half day (4h)
- Fluid Catalytic Cracking & Alkylation
- Hydrocracking
- Hydrotreating
5th half day (4h)
- Reforming & Isomerisation
- Refinery Costs and Margins
- Refinery Yield & Expense Case Study
6th half day (4h)
- Benchmarking
- H2 Manufacturing & Purification
- Refinery Simulation Case Study
- Course review & close out