Special Projects

For many years, OBQS has been discretely involved in assisting our clients to improve energy efficiency, product quality and yield by undertaking ‘mass balance’ exercises. These exercises involve gathering of information from various parties such as the tank farm operators, refinery operators, independent inspectors and the client themselves in order to evaluate the real losses and apparent losses of a specific unit, process or the refinery as a whole.

Examples of a handful of past projects follow; we cannot divulge some other proud achievements due to confidentiality.

Improving yield efficiency in a Refinery near Constanta, Romania. A year contract to identify and mitigate pilferage, improve load / discharge efficiency. This project started as a diligence assignment whereby the facilities were observed to be very run down and the Client required a formal assessment to approach investors. Our involvement assisted our Client to positively restore confidence, gain substantial investor funds for development, and eventually start to trade around the asset.

The Loss Control identified many shortcomings and the annual loss was apparently reduced from Euro 115 million down to Euro 35 million over the course of the year. These are client figures – as such we cannot verify their accuracy but the Client and Investors were very satisfied.

Blending of JP8 for US Military to support the Iraq campaign – 6 years project.

OBQS supervised two supply terminals, monitored Jet A1 receipt, and blending to JP8 in accordance with DESC solicitation standards. We designed, purchased, and installed a fully JFTOT capable laboratory within a 40’ container to take control of testing which cut vessel demurrage.

Our intervention turned around a project that was initially uncontrolled, restored bank confidence and credit lines, and built up a steady profit base for our Client.

Designing, commissioning, and then managing a Clean Petroleum Product Terminal in Zanzibar for several years.

Identified feeder vessels and managed their upgrade to Oil Major acceptance, and kept track of the inventory throughout. Through our Personnel on the ground, our Client collected all government taxes and returned these to the public coffers which enabled funding of L/C’s for forthcoming cargoes and stabilised the oil economy of the country.

Assisting a Client with the Monitoring of final construction, tank calibration, and Commissioning of a new Terminal in Fujairah. Thereafter keeping track of inventory and attending receipt / delivery of feedstock and finished product; monitoring process yields and assisting client with diligence to expand operational base.

Identified means to recover and sell a Cargo of Solid Vacuum Residue (Observed 10,000 Cst), and convert/blend to RMG 380Cst specifications without passing through Terminal lines as per contractual obligation. We purchased heavy duty PD pumps and hoses and designed means to blend, homogenize, and drop water out using portable equipment. Project was on time, on cost, and made our Client a tidy profit. We are particularly proud of this achievement as experts had told our client that the situation was impossible – we thrive on these kind of challenges!

Oil recovery from Turkmenistan – OBQS were sent by an Energy Consortium to audit a Contracting Company that had been funded to conduct oil recovery from the polluted coastline that was quickly encroaching the Caspian Sea.

The subsequent ‘surprise visit’ caught out the Contractor who had it turned out, embezzled the majority of the multi-tens of million dollar development fund and made little to no effort to recover any oil.

Besides uncovering the theft, OBQS were able to come up with an innovative new method to recover and process the oil spillage in a much more efficient manner and implement means to sell recovered oil to a barge to offset recovery costs.

This is what Euro 20 million buys if you do not monitor your investments!

Making it work
If you have an Energy / Oil concept and require expert consultancy services to make your ideas work, OBQS are your one stop shop to make it happen.