The refining industry continues to thrive on high demand and high prices, with global refinery utilization currently approaching 90 percent. Capacity constraints, increasing use of heavier crude feeds, and high margins are driving a number of large capacity and upgrading projects in the U.S. and around the world. The changing product slate in Europe is guiding a number of upgrading projects that favor production of diesel over gasoline, heating oil, and fuel oil. EU regulations are creating an unprecedented demand for biodiesel fuels. Producing countries in the Middle East are developing plans for new integrated petrochemical refineries, powered by the desire to maximize value and enhance margins.

We expect the market for our services and expertise to remain strong for the foreseeable future. The prospects for new refining capacity, upgrading, crude slate heavy-up, and a continuing move into petrochemical production should continue to grow. Our sulfur recovery, energy conservation, optimization and process enhancement skills are in high demand as we address emerging environmental regulations. Our clients continue to look for our experience in day to day running as well as long term planning of their refineries. We provide Process Controls and Optimization consulting and project implementation from our large resource base in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Usually, when the market is favorable and the margins are good, refining facilities tend to downplay the necessity for process enhancement and optimization. We are committed to changing this mentality and to demonstrate added value for our services by utilizing our customized benefits calculations. We believe that optimization should be an on-going process whether margins are lean or not. We are one of the few consulting companies to have customized benefits calculations for almost any service we provide.