Fundamentals of Petroleum Refinery

Start Date End Date Venue Fees (US $)
24 May 2026 Dubai, UAE $ 3,900 Register
30 Aug 2026 Jeddah, KSA $ 4,500 Register
13 Dec 2026 Riyadh, KSA $ 3,900 Register

Fundamentals of Petroleum Refinery

Introduction

This popular 5-day course will present an overview of the modern, integrated petroleum refinery. Each refining process will be presented, covering operating description and conditions, feedstock and catalyst selection, product yields, and the relationship between process parameters, unit performance, and product output and properties. Finally, future operations, including anticipated changes in crude oil and product slates, will be recapped. Designed for refinery personnel seeking a thorough overview of the refining process, the course will also provide useful information to suppliers, crude oil traders, or those involved in the financial assessment.

Objectives

    This course begins by discussing energy trends and outlook. It focuses then on the core refining processes including feedstock properties, process chemistry, process variables, operating conditions, unit configuration, and refinery products. Refining processes are discussed in detail. This program is designed to serve as an introduction to petroleum refining processing. For each process, purpose, basic chemistry, process flowsheets, and typical operating parameters are reviewed. The integration of these processes to achieve different refining objectives is also addressed.

Training Methodology

This is an interactive course. There will be open question and answer sessions, regular group exercises and activities, videos, case studies, and presentations on best practice. Participants will have the opportunity to share with the facilitator and other participants on what works well and not so well for them, as well as work on issues from their own organizations.

Who Should Attend?

This course provides technical details on Petroleum Refinery Processing; however, it is designed and presented to be understood by, and of benefit to both technical and non-technical personnel. This course can be attended by environmental, safety, and maintenance staff; all engineering disciplines; consulting and engineering organization staff; equipment staff, as well as oil traders, pipeline, financial, and business development personnel.

Course Outline

Introduction to the Refinery Flow Sheet

  • Hydrocarbon Chemistry
  • Crude Oil: Properties, Tests, Sources, Assays
  • Fuel Products: Environmental Rigs, Specs, MTBE
  • Atmospheric and Vacuum Distillation
  • Fluid Catalytic Cracking
  • Catalytic Reforming and Aromatics Recovery
  • Isomerization, Alkylation, and Polymerization
  • Energy Today
    • World energy trends and Outlook
  • Petroleum chemistry made easy
    • Conventional vs Unconventional Crude oil
    • Classification
    • Benchmarking
    • Assay & Characterization
    • Basic Definition & Correlations
  • A Petroleum Refinery
    • What a Refinery does?
    • History of Refining Processes
    • Worldwide Refineries
    • Major Refining Products
    • Refinery configuration and complexity
  • Petroleum Refining Operations
    • Overview
    • Simplified Process Flow Diagram
  • Separation & Fractionation
    • Desalter
    • Atmospheric Distillation
    • Vacuum Distillation
  • Conversion & Upgrade Process
    • Fluidized Catalytic Cracking (FCC)
    • Catalytic Reforming
    • Hydrocracking
  • Purification of Product
    • Hydrotreating
  • Refinery Gas Treating Process
    • H2S Removal (Amine Unit)
    • Sulfur Recovery
  • Upgrading the Bottom of the Barrel
  • Hydro processing for Sulfur, Nitrogen and Aromatics Reduction
  • Sweetening and Sulfur Recovery
  • Reside Processing: Coking, Hydro cracking etc
  • Refinery Options for Tomorrow's Cleaner Fuels
  • Future Refinery Configurations

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