Optimizing Your Petrochemicals and Refining Assets

As the world transitions to cleaner energy sources, companies with petrochemicals and refining facilities and assets increasingly recognize that deploying robust decarbonization solutions across real estate life cycle operations is critical to keep up with the pace of change. The production of thousands of products we depend on daily, including plastics, electronics, cosmetics, and medicines, as well as many green technologies, such as solar panels and wind turbines, require petrochemicals, while refining facilities are essential for transportation, electricity and more. With public commitments and C-suite mandates, petrochemicals and refining organizations are under pressure to demonstrate tangible progress toward decarbonization and compliance with new regulations while ensuring their portfolios operate efficiently and drive cost savings. An integrated portfolio strategy can drive decarbonization goals while optimizing asset operations and performance.

An Integrated Strategy Includes These Components:

1. Decarbonization and Sustainability Solutions
   
   With public commitments and new regulations, C-suite leaders at petrochemicals and refining companies are under pressure to adopt sustainable practices and show tangible progress toward their decarbonization targets. Recognizing the impact a company’s real estate portfolio and supply chain have on achieving these targets, C-suite executives are engaging their CRE teams to drive meaningful change. Significant efforts are underway for these enterprises to go beyond public commitments by allocating capital expenditures to these initiatives and evaluating the supply chain. Despite the complexity and uncertainty involved, deploying a sustainability strategy now is essential to realize these outcomes.
2. Asset Management and Optimization
   
   Digital transformation is allowing petrochemicals and refining companies to access data and uncover insights across their real estate portfolios and assets to improve efficiency, reduce costs, measure carbon emissions, and increase reliability through asset tracking, work order management, and lifecycle planning. An effective asset management and optimization program incorporates benchmarking tools that identify best practices and measure progress and performance across the portfolio.
3. Workplace Safety and Employee Experience
   
   Worker and workplace safety has always been a top priority for petrochemicals and refining companies; however, as the competition for labor increases, implementing a culture of safety and employee experience beyond regulatory compliance is essential to meet the needs of the next-generation workforce. An effective workplace safety and experience program should consider a human factors training component to manage and reduce human error. Considering human factors and conducting comprehensive gap assessments to identify risks and opportunities across the portfolio will equip CRE teams with data and insights needed to drive efficiencies with scalable training and compliance while focusing capital allocation toward long-term quality, safety and employee-amenity upgrades at the site level.

C-suites and CRE leaders at petrochemicals and refining companies face sustainability policies that are becoming increasingly stringent and complex—failure to keep up with and comply with new regulations will have ramifications that will directly affect an organization's ability to remain competitive and deliver value for key stakeholders. By tapping into your real estate portfolio and embracing digital transformation, petrochemical firms can demonstrate tangible progress toward decarbonization and compliance with new regulations, all while ensuring their portfolios operate efficiently and cost-effectively.

Key Success Metrics for Your Petrochemicals and Refining Facilities

1. Sustainability Reporting and Insights
   
   Your sustainability strategy reaches far beyond your physical real estate portfolio and facilities assets—it touches nearly every aspect of your organization’s business. The data and insights uncovered can accelerate your sustainability and decarbonization efforts, identify key priorities, and achieve cost savings across all areas of your business. For petrochemicals and refining companies, gaining real-time visibility into portfolio, asset and supply-chain performance will allow for greater flexibility and quicker decision-making that minimizes risks and identifies new sources of value.
2. Process Compliance and Risk Management
   
   Petrochemicals and refining companies that operate global portfolios face a myriad of compliance requirements from internal and external stakeholders alike, with varying requirements based on location and asset type. Despite this variation, a consistent approach to managing compliance requirements, establishing benchmarks and a standardized tracking method will allow CRE leaders to efficiently achieve compliance excellence in critical areas, including quality, health and safety, environmental and risk management.
3. A Culture of Safety with Global Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Standards
   
   Driving a culture of safety targeting a zero-incident rate has always been at the forefront of petrochemicals and refining operations. For firms operating multi-site or global portfolios, a comprehensive HSE reporting, tracking and review process ensures adherence to local, national and global standards while mitigating risks and costs associated with employee health, safety and wellbeing. Leveraging an enterprise-scale risk management software program can reduce overall risk through audit management, hazard identification, incident reporting and predictive analysis of safety and accident scenarios.

Navigating rapid change and economic uncertainty can be challenging, especially for petrochemicals and refining companies that are expected to cut costs now while showing progress towards decarbonization targets and identifying long-term growth opportunities to meet evolving consumer demands. Real estate and facilities teams are increasingly asked to deliver on business objectives that span geographies and asset types, but often face a myriad of inconsistencies in service models, service delivery and measurement and reporting. Identifying pitfalls early in the strategic planning process can mitigate risk and help CRE teams obtain organizational alignment, allowing you to focus on tomorrow’s opportunities.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

1. Not Engaging All Stakeholders Throughout the Strategic Planning Process
   
   Including all stakeholders, internal and external, such as corporate real estate and facilities leaders, early and at critical milestones will ensure all needs and concerns are considered and evaluated to mitigate potential risks and identify activities focused on long-term value creation. Without an integrated approach to strategy planning and execution, organizations may be tempted to pursue short-term cost-cutting tactics at the expense of innovation and future capabilities.
2. Disparate Data Measurement and Reporting Systems 
   
   Without an integrated measurement and reporting process, petrochemicals and refining organizations risk allocating capital and resources to activities that fail to deliver competitive advantage and stakeholder value. An integrated and scalable approach that gives business leaders a holistic view of the organization’s operations and portfolio is essential for quick decision-making, risk management and evaluating the long-term impact on organizational objectives and progress towards regulatory and investor commitments, including decarbonization.
3. Outdated or Ineffective Change-Management Process
   
   Rapid transformation requires petrochemicals and refining companies to rethink and update their organizational design and change-management processes to succeed in the new-energy economy. This transformation has the potential to achieve significant gains by maturing core competencies, enhancing customer and employee experience, and improving overall organizational efficiency. As real estate continues to be a key factor in achieving these objectives, CRE leaders must advocate for a seat at the table to ensure the proper support and resources are available.

CBRE understands that each client and each portfolio is unique, and we offer solutions that flex and span based on your organizational goals. Whether supporting a global portfolio or assisting with local operational needs, we have the products and services for petrochemicals and refining companies to ensure cost control, operational excellence, stakeholder satisfaction and right-sized solutions that will help you succeed in the new-energy economy.