Senior Economist

Job Description

Job Description

Deer Park Refining Limited Partnership (DPRLP) known as PEMEX Deer Park is a highly complex refinery located 18 miles east of Houston in Deer Park, TX, and is a part of the PEMEX group which is a fully integrated oil company in the Americas, working across the entire value chain: exploration, production, industrial processing/refining, logistics and marketing. PEMEX Deer Park provides a diverse and inclusive work environment that employs approximately 1000 employees with another 1200 contractors on site. The refinery’s rated capacity is 340,000 barrels per day and has the feed flexibility to process multiple grades of crudes to produce the high-quality transportation fuels the world needs. The PEMEX Deer Park site is co-located with other 3rd party chemical facilities allowing for further integration and optimization of the refinery and its products. We set high standards of performance and ethical behaviors and offer challenging and fulfilling job opportunities in a number of fields. We take great pride in our ability to ensure the health and safety of our workers and the environment while being a good neighbor and have a positive impact on the local community where we work.

BENEFITS:

We value our employees’ time and efforts. Our commitment to your success is enhanced by our competitive compensation and an extensive benefits package including paid time off, medical, dental, and vision benefits, and future growth opportunities within the company. Plus, we work to maintain the best possible environment for our employees, where people can learn and grow with the company. We strive to provide a collaborative, creative environment where each person feels encouraged to contribute to our processes, decisions, planning and culture.

For more information, please visit our website: PEMEX

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 3rd 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:

• Tactical hydrocarbon planning and scheduling
• Refinery optimization
• Linear Programming (LP) & understanding/interpreting model output
• Supply Chain Economics & Analysis
• Awareness of Supply Chain Integration & Optimization
• Awareness of Oil Movements & Product Handling 
• Awareness of Tactical Supply Chain Planning
• Product and Product Quality Management

Leadership and Other Competencies Required:

• Strong business acumen and commercial skills
• Strong stakeholder management 
• Strong negotiating skills
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Strong written, verbal and presentations skills
• Strategic Thinking

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