What is assay knowledge management?

Guest Blogger, Emma Price, Customer Relationship Manager for Spiral Software

Spiral was founded with a vision to transform the oil industry’s use of software, helping to maximise the value of every drop of crude oil. The inspiration behind this was twofold.

Firstly, the evolving industry context creates new challenges and opportunities. Refiners are seeing a more diverse feedstock market than ever before
—diverse in both quality and pricing. There are now many crude oils available which present some processing challenges in return for a discounted market price. At the same time, product specifications are becoming more stringent and legislation is tightening around safer operational limits. Put together, this makes a confident understanding of feedstock refining behaviour more important than it has ever been.

Secondly, the new capabilities of information technology enable effective collaboration, even across huge global organisations. It is perfectly realistic to gather real-time information from operating sites and provide meaningful analytics that help users collaborate to make the best possible decisions. This is the step from looking at assay data as simply a set of laboratory measurements to seeing it as “assay knowledge”: bringing together assay measurement with operational data, refinery models, past experience, market information and even news feeds.

This is what we mean by “assay knowledge management” and since 1998, our tools span this whole space: from traditional implementations at laboratories that help them validate and work-up assay data, through to oil major implementations with over 2,500 users in a single enterprise, spanning every area of the business, across upstream exploration, feedstock trading, strategy and operations.

This pushes well outside the bounds of legacy assay management software. For example, some of the largest commodity trading companies use our tools to run thousands of cases to understand how markets would react to feedstock and refining capacity changes. In parallel, engineering and consulting companies use our tools to analyse strategic investments, understanding the future value and risk of capital investments and green field developments.



-Note from Joe McMullen, blog owner-
Back in October, 2012 Invensys acquired Spiral Software. Since then we have been actively integrating Spiral technology with SimSci products, and learning more and more about all that Spiral has to offer our customers. I truly believe that Invensys provides unparalleled coverage of the refinery value chain, something that greatly benefits our customers. Spiral Integration with both PRO/II and ROMeo are due to be released in coming months. I look forward to hearing feedback from our customer on how valuable that will be!

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Refinery Performance Webinar recordings now available for viewing

Invensys frequently offers live webinars to help viewers gain a better understanding of our solutions.These webinar recordings are now available for you to view on-demand.

This webinar series introduces ways to optimize performance in a refinery. The following webinars address two major issues in today’s refineries.

First, is “Reducing Material Losses with Better Yield Accounting”, which addresses the need for better yield accounting. In order to prevent major monetary loss, refineries must tighten control on their raw material, inventory, and products. Unaccounted for material loss may be due to a number of factors including inaccurate or inconsistent data, coming led ownership of processed materials, environmental (HSE) pressure to report yields and losses, or Joint Venture (JV) pressure to report transactions. Our new Yield Accounting solution has corrected these issues in order to provide refiners with an accurate means of accounting for material losses.

Next is “Aging Workforce and Operator Training – Improve your bottom line with faster, more effective training techniques”.  This webinar explains how so much of the aging workforce is nearing retirement, leaving plant operation in the hands of less experienced, undertrained operators. SimSci-Esscor offers operator training that will optimize performance and improve safety in a plant. Watch this webinar to learn more about these innovative methods that will prepare your workforce in an efficient and effective manner.

In the “Using New Modeling Technology to Help Solve Heavy Oil Processing Issues” webinar, Invensys employees explain the importance of processing heavier feedstock. Today’s refineries were originally designed for lighter crudes.  Since there is an ever-increasing demand for oil and the amount of heavy oils on Earth is greater than twice the supply of lighter crudes, refineries are being forced to utilize them.  Conventional refineries find great difficulty in processing these “molasses-like” substances.  Processing the crude incorrectly leads to operational errors, like equipment failure and process downtime, which can risk operator safety.  This webinar offers insight on how to deal with heavy oils.

“Make better feedstock business decisions in real-time with Assay Knowledge Management” explains how to use this solution to make knowledgeable and profitable decisions based on your refinery’s needs. Invensys has paired up with Spiral Software, bringing you a new technology that properly determines the properties of feedstock, allowing a refiner to evaluate all available feedstocks in real time. This leads to better decisions and improves profitability.

The final webinar on demand is “How to improve refinery profitability with real-time, online, optimization”. Plant and operations managers should take an interest in finding out about the benefits of real-time online optimization. This Invensys solution can assist you in improving performance, making better business decisions, and increasing refinery profitability. If you are already interested in real-time optimization solutions but are not sure which solution is right for your refinery’s needs, this webinar can help!

In case you missed it, you can check out the recordings of the above mentioned webinars and others here: 

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REPOST: What is assay knowledge management?

Guest Blogger, Emma Price, Customer Relationship Manager for Spiral Software

Spiral was founded with a vision to transform the oil industry’s use of software, helping to maximise the value of every drop of crude oil. The inspiration behind this was twofold.

Firstly, the evolving industry context creates new challenges and opportunities. Refiners are seeing a more diverse feedstock market than ever before—diverse in both quality and pricing. There are now many crude oils available which present some processing challenges in return for a discounted market price. At the same time, product specifications are becoming more stringent and legislation is tightening around safer operational limits. Put together, this makes a confident understanding of feedstock refining behaviour more important than it has ever been.

Secondly, the new capabilities of information technology enable effective collaboration, even across huge global organisations. It is perfectly realistic to gather real-time information from operating sites and provide meaningful analytics that help users collaborate to make the best possible decisions. This is the step from looking at assay data as simply a set of laboratory measurements to seeing it as “assay knowledge”: bringing together assay measurement with operational data, refinery models, past experience, market information and even news feeds.

This is what we mean by “assay knowledge management” and since 1998, our tools span this whole space: from traditional implementations at laboratories that help them validate and work-up assay data, through to oil major implementations with over 2,500 users in a single enterprise, spanning every area of the business, across upstream exploration, feedstock trading, strategy and operations.

This pushes well outside the bounds of legacy assay management software. For example, some of the largest commodity trading companies use our tools to run thousands of cases to understand how markets would react to feedstock and refining capacity changes. In parallel, engineering and consulting companies use our tools to analyse strategic investments, understanding the future value and risk of capital investments and green field developments.

Read More

Refinery Performance Webinar recordings now available for viewing

Invensys Operations Management frequently offers live webinars to help viewers gain a better understanding of our solutions.These webinar recordings are now available for you to view on-demand.

This webinar series introduces ways to optimize performance in a refinery. The following webinars address two major issues in today’s refineries.

First, is “Reducing Material Losses with Better Yield Accounting”, which addresses the need for better yield accounting. In order to prevent major monetary loss, refineries must tighten control on their raw material, inventory, and products. Unaccounted for material loss may be due to a number of factors including inaccurate or inconsistent data, coming led ownership of processed materials, environmental (HSE) pressure to report yields and losses, or Joint Venture (JV) pressure to report transactions. Our new Yield Accounting solution has corrected these issues in order to provide refiners with an accurate means of accounting for material losses.

Next is “Aging Workforce and Operator Training – Improve your bottom line with faster, more effective training techniques”.  This webinar explains how so much of the aging workforce is nearing retirement, leaving plant operation in the hands of less experienced, undertrained operators. SimSci-Esscor offers operator training that will optimize performance and improve safety in a plant. Watch this webinar to learn more about these innovative methods that will prepare your workforce in an efficient and effective manner.

In the “Using New Modeling Technology to Help Solve Heavy Oil Processing Issues” webinar, Invensys employees explain the importance of processing heavier feedstock. Today’s refineries were originally designed for lighter crudes.  Since there is an ever-increasing demand for oil and the amount of heavy oils on Earth is greater than twice the supply of lighter crudes, refineries are being forced to utilize them.  Conventional refineries find great difficulty in processing these “molasses-like” substances.  Processing the crude incorrectly leads to operational errors, like equipment failure and process downtime, which can risk operator safety.  This webinar offers insight on how to deal with heavy oils.

“Make better feedstock business decisions in real-time with Assay Knowledge Management” explains how to use this solution to make knowledgeable and profitable decisions based on your refinery’s needs. Invensys has paired up with Spiral Software, bringing you a new technology that properly determines the properties of feedstock, allowing a refiner to evaluate all available feedstocks in real time. This leads to better decisions and improves profitability.

The final webinar on demand is “How to improve refinery profitability with real-time, online, optimization”. Plant and operations managers should take an interest in finding out about the benefits of real-time online optimization. This Invensys solution can assist you in improving performance, making better business decisions, and increasing refinery profitability. If you are already interested in real-time optimization solutions but are not sure which solution is right for your refinery’s needs, this webinar can help!

In case you missed it, you can check out the recordings of the above mentioned webinars and others here: 

Read More

Refinery Performance Webinar recordings now available for viewing

Invensys Operations Management frequently offers live webinars to help viewers gain a better understanding of our solutions.These webinar recordings are now available for you to view on-demand.

This webinar series introduces ways to optimize performance in a refinery. The following webinars address two major issues in today’s refineries.

First, is “Reducing Material Losses with Better Yield Accounting”, which addresses the need for better yield accounting. In order to prevent major monetary loss, refineries must tighten control on their raw material, inventory, and products. Unaccounted for material loss may be due to a number of factors including inaccurate or inconsistent data, coming led ownership of processed materials, environmental (HSE) pressure to report yields and losses, or Joint Venture (JV) pressure to report transactions. Our new Yield Accounting solution has corrected these issues in order to provide refiners with an accurate means of accounting for material losses.

Next is “Aging Workforce and Operator Training – Improve your bottom line with faster, more effective training techniques”.  This webinar explains how so much of the aging workforce is nearing retirement, leaving plant operation in the hands of less experienced, undertrained operators. SimSci-Esscor offers operator training that will optimize performance and improve safety in a plant. Watch this webinar to learn more about these innovative methods that will prepare your workforce in an efficient and effective manner.

In the “Using New Modeling Technology to Help Solve Heavy Oil Processing Issues” webinar, Invensys employees explain the importance of processing heavier feedstock. Today’s refineries were originally designed for lighter crudes.  Since there is an ever-increasing demand for oil and the amount of heavy oils on Earth is greater than twice the supply of lighter crudes, refineries are being forced to utilize them.  Conventional refineries find great difficulty in processing these “molasses-like” substances.  Processing the crude incorrectly leads to operational errors, like equipment failure and process downtime, which can risk operator safety.  This webinar offers insight on how to deal with heavy oils.

“Make better feedstock business decisions in real-time with Assay Knowledge Management” explains how to use this solution to make knowledgeable and profitable decisions based on your refinery’s needs. Invensys has paired up with Spiral Software, bringing you a new technology that properly determines the properties of feedstock, allowing a refiner to evaluate all available feedstocks in real time. This leads to better decisions and improves profitability.

The final webinar on demand is “How to improve refinery profitability with real-time, online, optimization”. Plant and operations managers should take an interest in finding out about the benefits of real-time online optimization. This Invensys solution can assist you in improving performance, making better business decisions, and increasing refinery profitability. If you are already interested in real-time optimization solutions but are not sure which solution is right for your refinery’s needs, this webinar can help!

In case you missed it, you can check out the recordings of the above mentioned webinars and others here: 

Read More

Learn about assay knowledge management?

Guest Blogger, Emma Price, Customer Relationship Manager for Spiral Software

Spiral was founded with a vision to transform the oil industry’s use of software, helping to maximise the value of every drop of crude oil. The inspiration behind this was twofold.

Firstly, the evolving industry context creates new challenges and opportunities. Refiners are seeing a more diverse feedstock market than ever before—diverse in both quality and pricing. There are now many crude oils available which present some processing challenges in return for a discounted market price. At the same time, product specifications are becoming more stringent and legislation is tightening around safer operational limits. Put together, this makes a confident understanding of feedstock refining behaviour more important than it has ever been.

Secondly, the new capabilities of information technology enable effective collaboration, even across huge global organisations. It is perfectly realistic to gather real-time information from operating sites and provide meaningful analytics that help users collaborate to make the best possible decisions. This is the step from looking at assay data as simply a set of laboratory measurements to seeing it as “assay knowledge”: bringing together assay measurement with operational data, refinery models, past experience, market information and even news feeds.

This is what we mean by “assay knowledge management” and since 1998, our tools span this whole space: from traditional implementations at laboratories that help them validate and work-up assay data, through to oil major implementations with over 2,500 users in a single enterprise, spanning every area of the business, across upstream exploration, feedstock trading, strategy and operations.

This pushes well outside the bounds of legacy assay management software. For example, some of the largest commodity trading companies use our tools to run thousands of cases to understand how markets would react to feedstock and refining capacity changes. In parallel, engineering and consulting companies use our tools to analyse strategic investments, understanding the future value and risk of capital investments and green field developments.

View the recorded webinar to learn more about the benefits of assay knowledge management.

Read More

What is assay knowledge management?

Guest Blogger, Emma Price, Customer Relationship Manager for Spiral Software

Spiral was founded with a vision to transform the oil industry’s use of software, helping to maximise the value of every drop of crude oil. The inspiration behind this was twofold.

Firstly, the evolving industry context creates new challenges and opportunities. Refiners are seeing a more diverse feedstock market than ever before—diverse in both quality and pricing. There are now many crude oils available which present some processing challenges in return for a discounted market price. At the same time, product specifications are becoming more stringent and legislation is tightening around safer operational limits. Put together, this makes a confident understanding of feedstock refining behaviour more important than it has ever been.

Secondly, the new capabilities of information technology enable effective collaboration, even across huge global organisations. It is perfectly realistic to gather real-time information from operating sites and provide meaningful analytics that help users collaborate to make the best possible decisions. This is the step from looking at assay data as simply a set of laboratory measurements to seeing it as “assay knowledge”: bringing together assay measurement with operational data, refinery models, past experience, market information and even news feeds.

This is what we mean by “assay knowledge management” and since 1998, our tools span this whole space: from traditional implementations at laboratories that help them validate and work-up assay data, through to oil major implementations with over 2,500 users in a single enterprise, spanning every area of the business, across upstream exploration, feedstock trading, strategy and operations.

This pushes well outside the bounds of legacy assay management software. For example, some of the largest commodity trading companies use our tools to run thousands of cases to understand how markets would react to feedstock and refining capacity changes. In parallel, engineering and consulting companies use our tools to analyse strategic investments, understanding the future value and risk of capital investments and green field developments.

Look for the upcoming webinar!

Read More

What is assay knowledge management?

Guest Blogger, Emma Price, Customer Relationship Manager for Spiral Software

Spiral was founded with a vision to transform the oil industry’s use of software, helping to maximise the value of every drop of crude oil. The inspiration behind this was twofold.

Firstly, the evolving industry context creates new challenges and opportunities. Refiners are seeing a more diverse feedstock market than ever before—diverse in both quality and pricing. There are now many crude oils available which present some processing challenges in return for a discounted market price. At the same time, product specifications are becoming more stringent and legislation is tightening around safer operational limits. Put together, this makes a confident understanding of feedstock refining behaviour more important than it has ever been.

Secondly, the new capabilities of information technology enable effective collaboration, even across huge global organisations. It is perfectly realistic to gather real-time information from operating sites and provide meaningful analytics that help users collaborate to make the best possible decisions. This is the step from looking at assay data as simply a set of laboratory measurements to seeing it as “assay knowledge”: bringing together assay measurement with operational data, refinery models, past experience, market information and even news feeds.

This is what we mean by “assay knowledge management” and since 1998, our tools span this whole space: from traditional implementations at laboratories that help them validate and work-up assay data, through to oil major implementations with over 2,500 users in a single enterprise, spanning every area of the business, across upstream exploration, feedstock trading, strategy and operations.

This pushes well outside the bounds of legacy assay management software. For example, some of the largest commodity trading companies use our tools to run thousands of cases to understand how markets would react to feedstock and refining capacity changes. In parallel, engineering and consulting companies use our tools to analyse strategic investments, understanding the future value and risk of capital investments and green field developments.

Look for the upcoming webinar!

Read More

What does the Invensys acquisition mean for Spiral?

Guest Blogger, Emma Price, Customer Relationship Manager for Spiral Software 

Last month, Spiral joined the Invensys family of companies. From the first we heard about it, the response across Spiral has been very positive: Invensys has an excellent reputation and we could all see the great potential synergies between our companies. After much anticipation, the way the actual deal was celebrated actually reflects the overall sense of the process: we all came together in our lunch room and enjoyed some celebratory cake before heading back to work.

This business-as-usual approach is important. Spiral has been growing rapidly and this acquisition will allow us to continue concentrating on software development, benefiting from Invensys’ global capabilities as well as the portfolio of industry-leading tools. The fit between our tools is amazing: there is almost no duplication, and the two tool sets fit perfectly together to make an end-to-end solution, from trading through to planning, scheduling, operations and onto logistics.

As Matthew, our CEO, said “Joining Invensys allows us to remain focused on software development and our customers will continue to work with the same Spiral team. We see only positive change as we benefit from the backing of a trusted, global company that shares our passion for bringing a unique end-to-end solution to the marketplace”.

Since the acquisition, the mood in the office is one of excitement, with staff eager to be part of the next stage of Spiral’s life-cycle and all the opportunities that this will bring. We are continuing to recruit and expand our capabilities to deliver the next generation of supply chain tools to the industry. In parallel, we are meeting people across the various areas of Invensys, sharing ideas and discovering new possibilities to deliver innovation and value to our customers. 

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Spiral Users' Meeting 2012 Summary

Grand Hyatt Berlin, Germany

Wednesday 31st October to Friday 2nd November 2012

SUM 2012 was a great success, attended by 82 delegates representing 29 companies from around the world. Thank you to all the attendees and especially to those who presented papers.

The week commenced with training sessions in Spiral's assay tools, where three full classes, aimed at both starters and advanced users, covered all aspects of the functionality and common workflows.
Read the full entry here

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Automation Merger: From Crude Properties to Finished Products

"Control's Keith Larson was on hand for the Invensys SimSci-Esscor/IntelaTrac user group meeting October 15 in Houston and talked with Matthew Webster, CEO of Spiral Software, as well as Harpreet Gulati, director, simulation and optimization, Invensys Operations Management, on what Invensys' acquisition of Spiral means for the two companies' mutual clients in the petroleum refining industry. Watch the video" by clicking on the link below.  by cl
Automation Merger: From Crude Properties to Finished Products

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Spiral Users' Meeting 2012 - Grand Hyatt Berlin, Germany

Spiral Users' Meeting 2012

Grand Hyatt Berlin, Germany
Wednesday 31st October to Friday 2nd November 2012

Will you be attending the Spiral's User's Meeting in Berlin? Spiral Software is the newest acquisition of Invensys Operations Management.


We are delighted to announce that the Spiral Users' Meeting 2012 will be taking place at the Grand Hyatt Berlin, between the 31st October and 2nd November.
Prior to the start of SUM 2012, there will be training courses on 29th and 30th October, for both beginners and advanced users, who may be interested in furthering their knowledge of the tools. As the training was sold out last year, we recommend you register early to avoid disappointment.
There will also be several interactive workshops on 30th October, demonstrating the entire Spiral toolset, including trader tools and our integrated supply chain management system, Spiral Suite.
The meeting itself will comprise of plenary sessions as well as individual tracks which reflect Spiral's offering to the industry across assay management, feedstock selection and supply chain management. Client presentations will showcase applications of Spiral tools and share best practice, while Spiral consultants will demonstrate recent developments and lay out our future roadmap.
SUM 2012 will be a great opportunity to network with Spiral's developers and consultants as well as users from all areas of the industry.
Highlights include:

• Demonstrations of the exciting new developments in the planning and scheduling features of Spiral Suite
• Demonstrations of the latest features in the assay tools
• Hands-on workshops covering the entire Spiral toolset
• Papers and break-out sessions sharing new toolset applications and industry best practices
• Presentation of development roadmap.

In response to positive feedback from previous Spiral Users' Meetings, we will be extending the range of support and consultancy available during SUM 2012. This will provide more opportunities to meet Spiral staff one-on-one and discuss how our tools can best support your work processes.
We very much hope you can join us in Berlin, for what promises to be another fantastic event.

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More on the Spiral Software acquisition

Yesterday I posted on the acquisition of Spiral Software discussing the acquisition and the main reason for the acquisition. Today I want to highlight some of their offerings including: Spiral Suite, CrudeSuite, CrudeSuite internet, Assay Libraries, and CrudeManager

Spiral Suite   

Spiral Suite is the only industry planning and scheduling solution designed from the ground up as an integrated solution. It fully supports all supply chain work processes across large and small enterprises, bringing together feedstock data management, planning, scheduling and envelope optimization activities in a single, fully-integrated toolset.
CrudeSuite

The CrudeSuite tools are designed for use in medium to large size companies, with users across many sites wanting to share and exchange information.

CrudeSuite internet

CrudeSuite internet (CSi)is a powerful, industry-leading decision support tool which utilizes sophisticated innovations in statistical modeling to enable companies to rapidly evaluate, manipulate and compare crude oil data, identifying the most profitable crudes.

Assay Libraries

Spiral markets a range of assay libraries for use in conjunction with its modeling and decision support tools. Industry-leading assay libraries from Chevron and Shell containing several hundred crudes are available in a variety of packages including regional and basket format. The Spiral HPI assay library is shipped as standard with all products.
CrudeManager

The CrudeManager tools are designed for use in small to medium size companies. They offer a wide range of functionality for crude assay management and manipulating crude oil information and are available with a variety of industry-standard crude oil assay libraries.

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Exciting day in Houston for SimSci-Esscor

• We have 60 SimSci-Esscor customers in attendance, some all the way from Japan and Korea

• We learned about the acquisition of Spiral Software

• Peter Reynolds of the ARC presented "Trends, Directions and Drivers for Tomorrow’s Process Plant"

• Nate Shea-han of Microsoft presented "Virtualization as a Stepping Stone  to the Cloud"

• After that, a day of presentations from Invensys and customers followed

If you didn't attend, you are missing out. I am about to head up to the customer appreciation event!

 

 



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Invensys Operations Management Acquires Spiral Software

Invensys Operations Management, a global provider of technology systems, software solutions and consulting services to the manufacturing and infrastructure operations industries, today announced that it has acquired Spiral Software, a privately held company headquartered in Cambridge, the United Kingdom to extend their refinery-wide optimization offerings with new planning, scheduling and crude management software.

Founded in 1998, Spiral Software’s solutions help hydrocarbon processing clients make better business decisions when trading and refining crude oils. Its crude assay management software enables clients to make the best choices when sourcing and refining feedstocks, and it’s planning and scheduling softwarehelps optimize production plans based on real-time crude demand and market pricing, as well as the refinery’s own capacity and supply chain constraints.

So you may be asking, why did Invensys Operations Management acquire Spiral? Simply put, Spiral technology will enable Invensys Operations Management to deliver new refinery-wide optimization solutions that enable clients to make better business decisions when trading and refining crude oils. Their offerings will enable us to fully support the entire planning to operations value chain, helping our customers make better business decisions in real time, based on demand, market pricing and their own economic, capacity and supply chain constraints.

Spiral Software solutions extend SimSci-Esscor’s refinery optimization offerings, enabling us to cover the entire planning to refining value chain, something no other provider can do. As an integrated offering with our market-leading refinery optimization products, it fills a gap in our portfolio offerings and strengthens our competitive position. Spiral Software’s crude assay management tools allow traders to rank various crude oils and assess a feasible purchase price as an input to the monthly plan, as well as determine what other crude products the refinery can make, allowing the traders to make additional product commitments or understand their product trading flexibility. Spiral Software’s planning and scheduling solution then integrates the buying plans with the production schedule so purchasing decisions are made continuously rather than monthly. Additionally, the software’s risk-analysis feature is able to model several different planning and scheduling scenarios, helping refiners understand their exposure to changes in feedstock costs, product demand and refinery operations.

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