About Us

About Us

REFCOMM® serves the oil industry by providing consulting, training and conferences especially for residue upgrading – bottom of the barrel.

Mission

Our mission is to connect the downstream refining community and technology providers.   To achieve this, the company brings together the Delayed Coker, Fluid Catalytic Cracker, Resid HydroCracker and Solvent Deasphalting and Sulfur operators and reliability technicians, process, project and mechanical engineers, inspectors, supervisors, managers, suppliers, and EPC’s to learn from each other’s expertise and improve productivity while lowering the risk.

What We Do

The Refining Community has been hosting high quality, technical, international refining conferences (RefComm^®) since 2001. Content is provided by refiners and suppliers and vetted by an industry advisors group.  The presentations and papers share the latest processes, innovations, best practices and lessons learned. Conferences have been held in North America, South America, Europe, Middle East and Asia.  They are now held annually in North America, South America and Europe.

The Refining Community offers technical training courses for Delayed Coking (DCU), Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCCU), Coke Drum Integrity, Refining Fundamentals and other topics.  Courses are offered at the beginning of RefComm®, at regional locations and customized for refinery and vendor locations. Contact us to arrange training.

The Refining Community provides consulting services through it’s Field Services division:

• Site Audits – Quick Hits to Make Your Unit Better
• Cold eyes review of equipment, projects, procedures, and operations
• Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) and HAZOP Subject Matter Experts
• P&ID Review
• Startup and Commissioning Support
• Turnaround Support
• Troubleshooting
• Incident Investigation Subject Matter Expertise
• Structural Preventative Maintenance Program (PMP)
• Best Practices for Operations, Maintenance and Design
• Coker pre-commissioning, commissioning and start-up

How We Do It

The Refining Community is about building community, whether that is suppliers broadening their customer base or refiners expanding their technical base.  Networking is a key strategy.  This is achieved face-to-face at RefComm^®; by communicating through website forums, blogs and discussion; and by being in the midst of peoples’ interactions in their social media of choice such as LinkedIn and Facebook.  All these networking mechanisms enable knowing who to ask and options to reach them.

Who We Work With

The Refining Community is unique in their approach to who is important. While some conferences are tailored to executives only, Refining Community sees the value in having the entire refinery represented.  Connecting and motivating operators with knowledge inspires them to be more productive and excel.  Someone close to the iron and at-risk with day-to-day operations has a keen awareness of productivity gaps.  Combining them with input from process engineers, reliability staff and managers gives a complete perspective and builds a broad network for solutions and innovation.

Regular attendees include refinery representatives from ExxonMobil, BP, CHS, Chevron, MOLGROUP, Indian Oil, Reliance, PDVSA, YPF, ENAP, LyondellBasell, CITGO, Total, Petrobras, Petron, Petrom, OMV, Marathon, Phillips 66, Sinclair, PBF, Shell, Tupras, KNPC, LOTOS, AXION and many more.

Company History Highlights

• 1998:  The company is founded under the name Bottom of the Barrel LLC and with the website, Coking.com.
• 1999:  14 companies advertise Delayed Coking products and services on the website.
• 2000:  The Coking.com Discussion Forum started
• 2001:  The 1st Coking.com Safety Seminar was hosted in Houston, TX and attended by 63 refiners and 38 suppliers.
• 2003:  The company performs Coker Safety Audit services.
• 2004:  The company is retained by major equipment manufacturers for ongoing advisory services.
• 2005:  The Vendor Exhibition was added to the Safety Seminar.
• 2006:  Turnaround Support and Consulting Services were added to the Field Services menu.
• 2007:  Bottom of the Barrel LLC incorporated and became Coking.com.
  • 1 day pre-conference training was added.
  • The 1st international conference was held in Calgary, Canada.
• 2008:  The 1st European conference was held in Cologne, Germany.
  • Field Services expanded to include PHA, HAZOP, and model review.
• 2009:  The 1st South American conference was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
  • The Rio conference featured a focused Coke Drum Workshop.
  • The training program expanded to include onsite and regional training classes.
• 2010:  The 1st CatCracking Conference and 1st Sulfur Conference were held in League City, TX.
• 2011:   The Coking and CatCracking Conference held in Galveston, TX featured a record attendance of 366 with an incredible 1 to 1.6 refiner to supplier ratio.
• 2012: Field Services expanded to include Process and Heater Troubleshooting.
• 2013:  The 1st Asian conference was held in New Delhi, India.
  • The conference name officially changed to RefComm^®, an abbreviation of REFining COMMunity.
• 2014:  The attendance at RefComm^® Galveston: Coking and CatCracking Conference tops 500.
• The 2nd South American Conference was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• 2015:  The exhibit hall at RefComm^®  Galveston expands to accommodate 100 booths.
  • The 1st Middle Eastern conference is held in Bahrain.
  • Field Services expands to include Sulfur Consulting.
• 2016:  Sulfur and I&E training and conference programming are added to the Delayed Coking and CatCracking programs at RefComm^® Galveston.
• 2018:  Commit to offering three conferences every year: United States, Europe and a 3rd roving location.
• 2019:  Add Residue HydroCracking track to RefComm Galveston.
• 2019: CRU group acquires Coking.com Inc (dba Refining Community) and relaunches the company as REFCOMM®.
• 2020:  Adding Solvent Deasphalting and rejuvenating Sulfur tracks.

RefComm^® Conferences

Refining Community has made a reasonable, good-faith attempt to ensure the information posted on this website is accurate representations of the information presented at past Refining Community Conferences. The sole purpose of this website is to promote sharing of non proprietary knowledge amongst the refining community and help enhance HSE performance and reliability of the industry. The user accepts sole responsibility for all outcomes resulting from use of this information. Neither the Refining Community nor any of the contributors to this website nor their employers make any warranty or representation (expressed or implied) with respect to the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of the information contained herein. The Refining Community assumes no responsibility for liability or damage which may result from the use of any of the information contained in this website.

Contact us to learn more about consulting, technical services, field service, training and RefComm® conferences.