The Significance of Oil Metrics For Refining Companies

May 29
07:43

2008

Sam Miller

Sam Miller

  • Share this article on Facebook
  • Share this article on Twitter
  • Share this article on Linkedin

KPI and scorecards are the most common indicators of an organizational performance. For an oil company, however, a different approach in performance measurement should be implemented; it’s called the oil metrics.

mediaimage
KPI or key performance indicators,The Significance of Oil Metrics For Refining Companies Articles scorecards, do these terms sound familiar to you? Of course, these are varied methods to gauge the efficiency of the oil refining company. But there is one type of measuring system that has slowly becoming the mainstream in performance management. The system is called the oil metrics. Like those mentioned earlier, oil refining metrics are also indicators of good or bad performance, focusing on areas such as product salability, industry scalability and structure, investment return and financial solidity. But unlike scorecards and key performance indicators, the metrics covers areas that are not even visible to the end consumers. Learn more about the metrics for oil refining companies.With the varied potential indicators that can be found in an oil refinery’s daily operation, the aspects covered by the metrics are generally categorized into two. These are the non-monetary metrics and the monetary metrics. As the name implies, monetary metrics concentrates on areas where finance is mainly involved. Before, a country’s gold reserve serves as its marker for economic position. Today, however, a country’s oil reserve plays a significant part, not only in its, fiscal stability, but also on its wealth influence to other countries. In fact, the world today has seen the transfer of power from country to country through oil assets. Monetary metrics, therefore, denotes the wealth position of the company and its country in the global market.The non-monetary metrics are areas of an oil refining company where risks in political stability and cost of military protection are being put to the test. While it is true that a country’s oil assets determine its international economic position, the risks and costs in military and political aspects must also be considered. Of course, as the economic power of a country increases, so shall too its risks for terrorist assaults. The country becomes the envy of another. That is why most countries do not disclose facts about how refined their products are, since highly refined products translate to high economic value. The United States, two decades ago, did spend billions on protecting its oil assets in the Middle East. The expenses however were mainly focused on military protection and did not even cover actual maintenance cost of the oil refining facilities. Non-monetary metrics, then, tells whether an oil company is stable or not based on the risks and cost of protection its operation entails.Aside from these monetary and non-monetary aspects, the metrics for an oil refining company is also greatly applicable to the profitability, environmental safety and business value. Market accessibility should be included as one of the indicators since it tells whether the oil refining operation is feasible or not. Accessibility of market involves agreements on export and import processes. Therefore, if the feasibility of importing and exporting oil is slim in a certain market, then it is not worth running an oil refinery. Environmental safety also spells the success for the company. The more hazardous its operation is to the environment, the more likely it will lose customers.These indicators however are just a piece of pie. There are still many areas to be considered, but you get the idea, putting an oil metrics system for your refinery will give you an advantage and greater value, not only for your market, but also in the global oil arena.