Meet the Company: Becht

Ahead of the European Refining Technology Conference (ERTC), we caught up with one of our sponsors, Becht, to give you more insight into their company and their involvement in ERTC 2024.

What are you and your company doing for the industry?

Becht was founded by Charles Becht III in 1964, the mission and vision have continuously evolved over time with our current mission being To Help Our Clients Succeed.

A good example of the value we bring to the industry is a grouping of projects that were focused on helping a recently divested refining site in Europe, which is a common trend today. We participated in the initial due diligence on both the integrity and financial evaluations. Then we helped craft the plan for transitioning to new ownership, evaluating the software suite of tools, the business planning model, PSM & integrity governance, and overall corporate structure. We also assisted the site with transitioning to a merchant refining mode of operation rather than the consistent crude and product slate they had historically run. Once fully transitioned to new ownership we then engaged in a number of projects to tackle the low hanging fruit for improving key KPI’s around PSM, integrity, and low/no-cap margin projects. In addition to these strategic projects we established a central engineering agreement to handle the day-to-day challenges that crop-up during operation.

Becht has provided many innovative solutions to address client issues over the years. We have participated heavily in the development of codes and standards that advance safety and reliability in the energy sector. Further, we have been funded by organizations such as ASME and MTI to develop specific technology advancements. And we are now self funding significant technological developments such as time dependent High Temperature Hydrogen Attack, Coke Drum Life Assessment, cognitively mapped engineering standards, High Temperature Crude Corrosivity and Stream Compatibility. Cutting edge technology is the lynch pin for Becht’s being able to help our clients succeed.

What's keeping you up at night (professionally)?

We need to always be on the move to be reactive to our clients’ requests. Since we established an office in the Netherlands in 2020 we have grown from zero to about 100 consultants in the region. This local presence is key to being close to our clients and reactive to their requests. We are always our eyes and ears open in order to mobilise quickly when clients need help. We helped a European refinery assess an operation incident on Christmas Eve, via on-site mobilization to safely re-start their process unit within three weeks. We also mobilized to a US major LNG plant in Western Africa within three days in the Covid era despite visa and covid tests requirement.

What are you expecting from ERTC?

We are looking forward to showcase our value to the industry at ERTC. We work with 90% of the refineries and petrochemical sites in North America. Our mission is to help our clients succeed, and we have already achieved a good footprint in Europe, and we are looking forward to bring our expertise to more refineries and petrochemical sites in the region !

Looking into your crystal ball, what will we be discussing by 2030?

Our main sustainability initiative is ensuring that clients have continuity in transferring experience and expertise into future challenges. Industry faces new regulatory and economic realities while having the highest turnover of staff in recent memory. We believe the starting point to sustainability is not forgetting the hard-fought industry lessons learned. We have helped several low carbon fuel and green H2 projects that were facing start-up challenges due to not having the right starting premise or appropriate specifications for the service. While some of these challenges are inevitable with new technologies, many could have been avoided by including experience from the refining sector. Similarly, we have already helped multiple refineries in Europe co-process renewable feedstock, from feasibility studies to troubleshooting their operation.