Senior Economist

Job Summary

 The Senior Crude Economist is instrumental in maximizing cash flow from operations; translating market dynamics into optimized monthly operating plans and maximizing value capture from feedstock optimization. Close cooperation with key site stakeholders is essential for driving performance towards these targets.

The Senior Crude Economist is part of the Business Management team which has the primary responsibility of managing and optimizing the physical hydrocarbon supply chain, which deals with the selection and acquisition of crude and feedstocks for the refinery through the delivery of products to our customers. The team’s objective is to deliver the right products to the right place on time and maximize the overall margin potential of the Deer Park Refinery. 

Accountabilities & Responsibilities: 

The Crude Economist carries out crude valuation and monthly planning for the Deer Park Refinery, optimizes crude selection and acquisition, and drives crude flexibility.

Key accountabilities and responsibilities of the Staff Crude Economist are:

• Maintains forward planning of optimum crude runs for M to M+3, with the objective of maximizing contribution margin. 
• Develops detailed crude unit feedstock purchase mandate for execution by the Commercial Supply Team. 
• Generates Crude Indifference Values monthly and as needed to support Commercial Supply’s trading activities.
• Supports broader Business Management in the development and optimization of the monthly refinery operating plan as well as the annual business plan. Leads coordination of the plan with partners (internal and external) relating to crude unit feedstocks.
• Supports planning of shutdowns and turnarounds to minimize economic and customer impact while seeking optimization opportunities.
• Evaluates economics and tests sensitivities associated with various medium- and longer-term margin options as well as assessments of projects.
• Participates in and provides support to project teams that involve area of responsibility.
• Identifies and develops ideas/project justifications to improve profitability, customer satisfaction, reliability, and product quality. 
• Leads the Crude Value Delivery Team to broaden the slate of acceptable crude unit feedstocks and drive short term optimization as well as longer term opportunity identification and implementation.
• Leads margin improvement initiatives, including yield optimization, constraint removal, and utilization improvement. 
• Works with internal and external parties to maximize business opportunities and minimize losses from operational problems by managing inventory, optimizing refinery stream routings, and taking advantage of product and feedstock optionality.
• Negotiates, manages, and provides assurance for assigned contracts related to crude unit feedstocks and associated logistics. 
• Assures correct pricing and payment/invoicing for all assigned contracts.
• Supports margin variance analysis by comparing plans to actual performance. 
• Supports the Commercial Supply Traders and Contracts Coordinators (hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon) with Economic assessments in relation to various contracts and spot opportunities with 3^rd parties.
• Promotes win-win relationships with service providers, affiliates, and customers.

The Senior Crude Economist is an individual contributor role and a member of a pool of Economists that collectively focus on Crude and Feedstocks, Refinery, and Products related economics and optimizations in the short, medium, and long term. Economists are part of the Business Management department and work closely with Scheduling, Production, Logistics, Technology, Laboratory, and Commercial Supply.

Qualifications: 

Technical Competencies Required:

Leadership and Other Competencies Required:

Special Challenges:

• Manage relationships with service providers, affiliates, customers, and internal stakeholders with sometimes differing objectives and priorities
• Willing to backfill other roles, demonstrating a learner’s mindset, with an ability to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in an ever-changing and fast-paced environment. 
• The job requires energy, creativity, flexibility, and adaptability to changing priorities and business conditions. 
• Understanding concepts of risk vs reward and dealing with uncertainty will be essential in delivering via this role and in Business Management

Job Knowledge, Skills & Experience 

Education and Experience: 

• Bachelor's degree in engineering (chemical preferred) – MBA a plus
• Minimum of 3 years PIMS LP Modeling experience required
• Experience with crude valuations and related decisions in a dynamic market environment
• Minimum of 5 years refinery or chemical plant Engineering experience required
• Understanding of Oil markets and supply