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industry

Fig. 3

Evaluating players
Fig. 4 in the world are not only about the hardware, with
and positions capacities around 380,000 barrels per day. They
are also about the “software”—a high-performance
These global trends affect the entire sector, with culture that emphasizes continuous improvement,
some segments and refi ners feeling them more reliability, energy effi ciency, innovation and techno-
than others. To assess the relative strength of more logy.
than 400 refi neries, we plotted the capacity of each The major oil companies and US independent refi -
against the Nelson Complexity Index (see Figure ners lead the industry, controlling more than a third
3). For refi ners whose NCI score and scale place of global capacity (see Figure 4). Only 6% of the
them below the line, it could be very diffi cult to refi ning assets of the majors fall under the curve.
thrive in a competitive market. The best refi neries Regionally, Europe, Latin America, the Common-

52 52 Impiantistica Italiana - Luglio-Agosto 2019