- The successful candidate will act as a trusted technical and strategic advisor to senior commercial leadership, providing independent expertise and challenge across refinery economics, planning, scheduling, optimization and commercial performance.
- This opportunity is particularly suited to a highly experienced refining and commercial professional seeking a high-impact advisory position where decades of industry expertise can directly influence strategic and commercial decisions.
Strategic & Executive Advisory:
- Act as a trusted technical advisor to senior commercial leadership on refinery economics, planning, scheduling and optimization.
- Provide an independent technical perspective on major commercial and operational decisions.
- Review and challenge key assumptions, analyses and recommendations produced by the existing EPS organization.
- Translate refinery operating constraints and opportunities into actionable commercial recommendations.
- Support executive decision-making through robust economic and commercial analysis.
- Provide independent challenge while preserving the accountability and responsibilities of the existing EPS management structure.
Refinery Economics & Optimization:
- Review refinery economics and validate the assumptions underpinning commercial decisions.
- Review Linear Programming (LP) optimization outputs and challenge recommendations where appropriate.
- Assess refinery margins, profitability and margin-enhancement opportunities.
- Review crude selection economics and crude assay evaluations.
- Identify opportunities to optimize product yields and refinery operating modes.
- Evaluate trade-offs between crude supply, refinery configuration, production yields, inventory and market opportunities.
- Recommend initiatives aimed at maximizing refinery and commercial performance.
Planning & Scheduling Oversight:
- Provide senior-level review of short-, medium- and longer-term refinery production plans.
- Assess the operational and economic feasibility of planning assumptions.
- Ensure alignment between refinery planning and broader commercial strategy.
- Review scheduling constraints and identify potential bottlenecks affecting commercial performance.
- Assess the commercial impact of shutdowns, turnarounds and changes in refinery operating conditions.
- Strengthen planning governance and decision-support frameworks.
Commercial Performance & Decision Support:
- Provide technical and commercial advice on crude supply and refinery operating risks.
- Support inventory optimization and working-capital efficiency.
- Identify opportunities for margin protection and enhancement.
- Assess potential impacts of market disruptions on refinery economics and operating decisions.
- Support supply and commercial optimization initiatives.
- Contribute to continuous improvement of commercial performance across the organization.
- Act as a senior technical mentor to the existing EPS leadership and specialist teams.
- Strengthen internal capabilities in refinery economics, planning, scheduling and optimization.
- Introduce relevant international best practices and world-class planning methodologies.
- Improve analytical capabilities and economic decision-making frameworks.
- Support the development of a strong internal pipeline of EPS expertise.
- Encourage knowledge transfer across the broader commercial organization.
Desired Skills and Experience
The successful candidate should demonstrate deep expertise across several of the following areas:
- Minimum of 20 years of senior-level experience within downstream refining, with ideally 20 - 30 years of overall industry experience.
- Extensive experience within integrated refining and commercial organizations.
- At least 10 years of significant leadership or senior technical responsibility across one or several of the following areas:
- Refinery Economics
- Refinery Planning
- Scheduling
- Linear Programming (LP) Optimization
- Supply Optimization
- Significant exposure to large, complex and internationally operated refineries.
- Experience within major international oil & gas, integrated energy, refining or trading organizations would be highly desirable.
- Strong combination of refining, commercial and ideally trading exposure.
- Demonstrated ability to connect refinery operational realities with commercial and market opportunities.
- Deep understanding of refinery margin drivers and value optimization.
- Strong experience advising senior executives and influencing major commercial and operational decisions.
- International experience and exposure to complex operating environments would be a significant advantage.
- Refinery economics
- Linear Programming (LP)
- Crude assay evaluation and crude selection economics
- Refinery planning and scheduling
- Margin optimization
- Refinery yield optimization
- Supply optimization
- Production planning
- Inventory optimization
- Commercial optimization
- Market economics
- Refinery operating-mode optimization
- Integrated refining and commercial decision-making.