The Middle East region is witnessing an economic transformation that requires a step up in operations to enhance productivity across industrial sectors. As part of this transformation, the ambitious regional government visions including Saudi Vision 2030, UAE Vision 2021 and Kuwait’s National Development Plan are placing a lot of emphasis on the efficiency and effectiveness of state-run commercial operations to maximize returns on national resources. At present, the leading global trend in a refining ecosystem is an end-to-end integration of applications that will make business operation more profitable, especially in a fast-changing global energy marketplace. As a result, an important long-term concept that is increasingly gaining traction and adoption is Refinery of the Future. It is based on the philosophy that refineries must be designed to facilitate product evolution and deliver sustainable competitiveness by addressing concerns of production cost, capital efficiency, regulative and competitive responsiveness, as well as profitability. The design of the Refinery of the Future keeps in mind flexibility, enabling it to deal with changes in market conditions, in the short term, while adapting to long-term transformations. Today’s refiners face an array of new challenges, the greatest of which are the need for investments to produce even cleaner burning fuels, react to market dislocations, and adapt to the widely forecasted plateau in demand for transportation fuels. Each of these challenges will affect product mix and investment strategies for refiners in the future. Added to these is the need to drive turnover from operation and deal with an environment of increasing complexity that ranges from feedstock to products. For many, the stricter rules intending to eliminate the use of high-sulfur bunker fuel presents a pressing challenge. At the same time, many countries are also moving away from burning fuel oil for power generation and heating. The regional governments in the Middle East are actively pursuing this agenda, with natural gas anticipated to overtake oil to become the dominant fuel, accounting for about 60 percent of consumption by 2040, according to reports. Therefore, even in markets where domestic fuel consumption is growing at a healthy rate, refiners are looking to diversify into petrochemicals, where the demand and profitability are even higher. This strong demand for petrochemicals is being driven by dozens of countries such as China, India, and Indonesia, where nearly 3 billion people will graduate into the middle class by 2050. These consumers will fuel demand for more synthetic fibers, packaging, automobiles, new food options and pharmaceuticals, and countless other consumer goods, which the Middle East is well placed to continue catering and supplying to. To satisfy this growing demand, the Refinery of the Future must have the ability to upgrade crude oil into high quality cleaner-burning fuels, in addition to higher-value petrochemicals. The technologies that enable both production of a clean fuels slate, and an efficient pathway to “crude to chemicals” from cost-advantaged feedstocks are essential to the long-term profitability of refiners. Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) enabled technologies provide refining and petrochemical companies with the ability to combine advanced software capabilities with the necessary physical products to provide value to industrial operations. Jim Moshi There was a time when refineries that converted 15 to 25 percent of their production into petrochemicals were considered highly integrated. UOP recently licensed a world-scale complex that currently is in construction, and that will efficiently convert more than half its crude intake into petrochemicals. Even at this level, 50 percent is by no means the technological limit. As important as any other factor, the Refinery of the Future will be a digitally connected facility. Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) enabled technologies provide refining and petrochemical companies with the ability to combine advanced software capabilities with the necessary physical products to provide value to industrial operations. This enables the creation of a seamless integration of the entire value chain — from supply to the end consumer. Such level of integration allows for plants with software-based systems that yield smarter operations, capable of deep self-diagnosis and self-learning. We can sense operating anomalies days, weeks, and even months before they become problems. The Refinery of the Future will be equipped with cloud-based connected plant services that analyze plant performance data with proprietary models to provide recommendations that improve process optimization and operational reliability, minimize energy consumption and emissions, eliminate waste products and better manage water. It also can bridge gaps in experience caused by retirements and personnel attrition, providing insights and guidance to plant operators. The benefits of a connected plant are plenty — from increased efficiency, and reduction in cost, to the ability of being prepared to meet the dynamic demands of the future. Refineries that bring these elements together, and are integrated with substantial petrochemicals production, are likely to be among the most consistently profitable over the long run. Jim Moshi is general manager for Middle East, Honeywell UOP. 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