REF 209
Refinery Utilities and Offsites
COURSE SCHEDULE
| Code | Date | Location | price (€)* |
|---|---|---|---|
| REF 209 | 13-15 Apr 2026 | Online | 2000 |
| REF 209 | 19-23 Oct 2026 | Copenhagen | 2700 |
* Prices are subject to VAT and local terms. Ph.D. students, groups (≥ 3 persons) and early bird registrants (8 weeks in advance) are entitled to a DISCOUNT!
COURSE OVERVIEW
In a refinery, utilities are rarely the focus of attention. The conversation is usually about the CDU, the FCC, the hydrotreater, the process units that make the products. Utilities are in the background. They are assumed to be there. And that assumption is precisely the problem: when a utility system fails, it does not fail quietly in the background. It fails everywhere at once.
A loss of steam pressure affects every unit that uses steam for heating, stripping, or mechanical drive simultaneously. A cooling water supply failure affects every heat exchanger and overhead condenser in the plant at the same time. A flare system that is undersized or improperly maintained does not fail when everything is going well, it fails during an emergency, when it is needed most.
This course builds the understanding of refinery utility systems that operators and engineers need to operate them effectively, recognize early warning signs of degradation, respond intelligently to utility upsets, and understand the cascade effects that a utility failure creates across the entire refinery. It covers steam, fuel gas, electrical power, cooling water, instrument air, nitrogen, flare and relief systems, and effluent treatment from the perspective of how they work, how they interact, and what happens when they do not perform as expected.
COURSE OUTLINE
5 days
Day 1: Steam, Power, and Fuel Gas
o The Refinery Utilities System: Interdependencies and Cascade Failure Logic.
o Steam Generation, Distribution and Steam Balance Management.
o Steam System Upsets: Water Hammer, Carryover and Header Pressure Loss.
o Fuel Gas System and Electrical Power Distribution.
o Exercises:
• Exercise 01: Refinery Tango: Map the utility dependencies across five major process units and pinpoint the single failure that would hit the entire refinery hardest and fastest.
• Exercise 02: Determine how much risk three weeks of borderline feedwater quality has built into the steam generation system and act before the next boiler inspection reveals the answer.
• Exercise 03: Sequence the response to a sudden HP steam loss and demonstrate why getting the order wrong is as dangerous as getting the decision wrong.
• Exercise 04: Decide what stays running and what gets shut down when grid power fails and own generation falls 35% short before the gap makes the decision for you.
Refinery Tango Anchor Scenario: All case studies and exercises draw from a single medium-complexity refinery whose utility systems are interconnected in ways that become critically important during the Day 3 workshop, used progressively across all three days.
Day 2: Cooling Water, Instrument Air, Flare and Effluent Treatment
o Cooling Water Systems: Chemistry, Fouling and Summer Operation.
o Instrument Air and Nitrogen: The Safety-Critical Utilities.
o Flare and Relief Systems: The Last Line of Defence.
o Effluent Treatment and Wastewater Management.
o Exercises:
• Exercise 05: Identify which process units are running out of cooling margin after two weeks of rising water temperatures before the heat wave makes the decision for you.
• Exercise 06: Sequence the instrument air load-shed between a compressor trip and the first control valve losing actuation.
• Exercise 07: Diagnose why the flare lost its flame during an FCC blowdown and contained the unburned hydrocarbon release before it becomes a safety incident and a regulatory event.
• Exercise 08: Track down which units are driving the flare header back pressure above its safe limit and restore capacity before the next PSV lift finds nowhere to go.
• Exercise 09: Intercept a high-sulfide wastewater slug before it kills the biological treatment system and triggers an environmental discharge violation.
Day 3: Practical Workshop — Utilities Failure Cascade
o Morning Session: Diagnose three simultaneous utility system problems in isolation, a steam header imbalance, a cooling water temperature rise, and a flare back pressure buildup before the afternoon reveals how they connect.
o Afternoon Session: Map the full cascade triggered by a grid power interruption, a cooling tower fan failure, and a steam header pressure drop occurring simultaneously and develop the operational plan that breaks the feedback loop before it becomes an uncontrolled shutdown.
o Individual Quiz Assessment: 20 questions. Minimum passing score: 60%.
INSTRUCTOR
Instructor Profile
The Instructor is a Petroleum Engineer, holds M.Sc in Mechanical Engineering, and is Specialist Natural Gas Engineering. He has over 20 years of hands-on O&G industry experience spanning gas processing, crude treatment, production operations, and technical training across onshore and offshore environments in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.
His operational background includes five years as OJT Instructor at production facilities in the Middle East, AGRU Package Leader roles, and extensive experience as Process Engineer across upstream and downstream O&G facilities.
Since 2015 he has been a Senior Lecturer on IFP Training’s international instructor roster, delivering advanced gas processing, thermodynamics, field processing, and operations training to engineers and operators across three continents
FAQ
DESIGNED FOR
Operations and engineering professionals at any level who work with or depend on refinery utility systems:
o Utilities Operators and Technicians who run steam, cooling water, power, flare, and effluent treatment systems
o Process Unit Operators and Control Room Operators who depend on utility supply and need to understand what happens when it changes
o Operations Supervisors and Shift Supervisors responsible for managing utility constraints during normal and upset operations
o Maintenance and Reliability Engineers with responsibility for utility system equipment
o Process Engineers who need to understand utilities as an operational constraint in their unit design and optimization work
Recommended experience: Minimum 2 years in a refinery or process plant environment. Prior exposure to any of the utility systems covered is helpful but not required
COURSE LEVEL
o Intermediate to Advance
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to:
o Explain the function and operating principles of all major refinery utility systems and describe how each supports the process units it serves
o Describe the steam generation and distribution system and explain the cascade effects of a steam pressure loss on refinery operations
o Identify the critical operating parameters of cooling water systems and explain the consequences of cooling water quality degradation and supply failure
o Explain the role and design logic of the flare and relief system as the last line of pressure relief defense in a refinery
o Describe the function of the instrument air and nitrogen systems and explain why their failure is a safety-critical event
o Explain the purpose and main processes of refinery effluent treatment and describe the operational and environmental consequences of treatment system failure
o Analyze the cascade effects of a utility system failure across multiple process units and develop a prioritized operational response
REGISTER
Registration is now OPEN!
* Prices are subject to VAT and local terms. Ph.D. students, groups (≥ 3 persons) and early bird registrants (8 weeks in advance) are entitled to a DISCOUNT!
For more details and registration please send email to: register@petro-teach.com
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