AM-01-25 THE NEXT BIG THING IN REFINING

Description:

There is growing support that eCommerce and eBusiness have a tremendous potential to create value for the refining industry. There is also growing belief that these “big things” may ultimately change the structure of the industry itself. Now, Accenture is obviously not the first to expound on the potential impact of eCommerce and eBusiness and its promises to dramatically cut costs and boost productivity, but we believe evidence is mounting that the opportunities are not merely possibilities, but are becoming very real. We also know that capturing their value will be difficult and that it will take a few years to get new capabilities fully in place. Inevitably some players will fall short. Most importantly, we believe that a company’s ultimate ability to leverage these capabilities will distinguish it from its competitors over the next three to five years. Over the next decade, we think this will result in the emergence of a clear set of winners and losers and potentially a new industry structure. Our perspective rests on well-known and widely adopted ‘e’ applications, such as those in supply, trading, and logistics. It is also founded on innovative applications of eCommerce and eBusiness to what happens inside the refinery gate (the focus of this paper).