It may seem premature to be talking about the next "big thing" in refining when the jury is still out on whether there is a current "big thing." There is certainly skepticism that "eCommerce" (primarily web-enabled transactions and information exchange) is significant and substantial enough to be characterized as having profound impact on refining. Who in the refining industry hasn't felt some satisfaction that the "dot-coms" have largely become "dot-bombs?" Or said "I told you so" that the companies with physical, steel-and-concrete assets appear to generate value over those with "virtual" assets? Accenture's work with clients in refining and petrochemicals industries, however, leads us to believe that eCommerce is indeed the current "big thing," and that eBusiness - that is, ‘e’-enabled collaboration, information aggregation and e-enabled business processes - is where the refining industry has an opportunity to find the next big thing.

There is growing support that eCommerce and eBusiness have a tremendous potential to create value for the refining industry. There is also growing belief that these "big things" may ultimately change the structure of the industry itself. Now, Accenture is obviously not the first to expound on the potential impact of eCommerce and eBusiness and its promises to dramatically cut costs and boost productivity, but we believe evidence is mounting that the opportunities are not merely possibilities, but are becoming very real. We also know that capturing their value will be difficult and that it will take a few years to get new capabilities fully in place. Inevitably some players will fall short.

Most importantly, we believe that a company's ultimate ability to leverage these capabilities will distinguish it from its competitors over the next three to five years. Over the next decade, we think this will result in the emergence of a clear set of winners and losers and potentially a new industry structure.

Our perspective rests on well-known and widely adopted ‘e’ applications, such as those in supply, trading, and logistics. It is also founded on innovative applications of eCommerce and eBusiness to what happens inside the refinery gate (the focus of this paper). Consider the profit generation possibilities if...

  • 'e' enabled processes could squeeze an extra thousand barrels of capacity through the catalytic cracking unit?

  • Refiners could leverage eBusiness to double the length of runs for their major pieces of equipment, or reduce turnaround times by 20–30 percent?

  • The refinery could achieve product premiums through its ‘e’-enabled ability to identify unique market opportunities and be flexible enough to produce that extra tank of product?

  • The new capabilities change the nature of the workforce to dramatically increase the effectiveness of the employee in identifying and ca

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