Benchmarking

Our company vision is “To keep pace with the top ranked firms in the industry”. One of the ways to follow this vision was the participation of our company in the project “Benchmarking of European Crude Oil Pipelines and Product Pipelines” in 2000.

The pilot study entitled “European Pipeline Systems” involved seven companies running crude oil pipelines and product pipelines mostly in Western Europe. Comparative analysis was elaborated by Solomon Associates company (www.solomononline.com) which specializes in comparative analyses mainly in the area of refineries; the company thus perceived design of a new model of pipeline systems as a challenge. The study was being drafted in the course of 2001 and concerned the operation year 2000. This initial study was rather an informative one and helped to clarify the indicators or fields critical enough to be evaluated and, on the other hand, the areas which were irrelevant and whose monitoring could be limited or excluded.

The second study entitled “Comparative Performance Study“, which we also took part in, covered the data of operational year 2002. It was also compiled by Solomon Associates (hereinafter SA). The second study involved 12 companies mostly from Western and Central Europe. SA analyzed operation data of 11 crude oil transport systems and 6 transport systems for crude oil-derived products. These systems included 12 tank farms and 3 marine terminals. To compare activities of the various workplaces, SA adopted a modular approach; the data was collected, analyzed and presented for different pipeline systems, tank farms and piers individually.

The principal fields of interest of this study included:

• investments and maintenance costs including crude oil pipelines supervision and cathodic protection;
• issues related to operation reliability;
• costs and efficiency of labour including contractors;
• operational costs and energy costs.

The study did not assess which company was the best or the worst one, it only analysed what the participant’s positioning was with respect to the average values determined within the monitored group. The evaluation was to be made by the participants themselves; a field considered by one participant to be irrelevant could be perceived as a key one for another participant and vice versa. As for our company, the file represents an invaluable source of information about the areas in which we are equal to or better than other companies and it also inspires us to further improve the indicators in which we’ve fallen behind.

With respect to the generally encouraging results of the study, we also took part in another study entitled “Analysis of Performance of European Product Pipelines and Terminals 2004”. This study processed information about 17 pipeline systems (10 crude oil and 7 product pipelines), 16 tank farms and 5 marine terminals. Information on 42 North-American pipeline systems was considered during the analysis drafting. In this study, the drafting company SA made use of its experience gained in previous periods and enhanced the manner of comparison of different systems in respect of its analysis and methodology as well as by using the ideas given by the participating companies. The results of the study were handed over at the beginning of 2006 and serve our company as a basis for further improvements.