70. The CEO Magazine - May 2014 theceomagazine.com

In The OfficeEXECUTIVE INTERVIEW

A Refined Approach

As the owner of a well-established refinery and with the support of a major multinational group behind it, Statoil Refining Denmark is

bringing a new standard of quality to the oil industry.

Images courtesy of Statoil

Rasmus Wille, CEO of Statoil Refining Denmark, took up his position a little over three years ago,

bringing to the role a companywide refocus on safety and operational excellence. “I have a Master of Science in chemical engineering and I started my career with Statoil in 1998. I spent five years at the refinery in Denmark doing planning, scheduling, and supply-chain management. I then had about four years in different management positions in the refinery, both within process engineering and supply-chain management.

“I was also, at that time, a part of the management team at the refinery for a short period. Then in 2009–2010, I went to Norway and had a position there as vice president for value-chain management in downstream Statoil. That was basically optimising the supply chain across the two Statoil refineries; that was the main purpose, but there were some other things included there. On 1 January 2011, I came back to Denmark to be the CEO of Statoil Refining Denmark A/S, which is basically our oil-refinery organisation.”

In 1986, Statoil purchased a refinery in Kalundborg from Dansk Esso. Since then, Statoil has modernised and expanded the facility, offering greater refining capability to the Statoil Group and giving the organisation a good stronghold in Denmark. Rasmus had worked at the refinery for more than a decade before taking up his role, so he understood the challenges that lay ahead of him. “I think the greatest challenge is probably that the competition in our downstream business has become even tougher in Europe. We can really see that our competitors are moving and the biggest challenge is for us to move not only at the same pace, but at a faster pace, than our competitors.”

As the Statoil Group has divested its retail business in 2012, the company has established a strong network across Denmark. “As we head up today, we have contracts with our retail network. We have a fixed-supply contract with them so they buy all of their products from our refinery. It’s therefore more on an operational level that we have communication with the downstream. We are mainly in the business here of producing the products in the most efficient way and we’re selling most of

our products through fixed-term contracts with downstream businesses present in and around Denmark.”

According to Rasmus, Statoil Refining Denmark’s overall ambition is to run a safe, reliable, and efficient operation. “From 2010 until 2013 we had been running quite an extensive improvement program where we’ve reduced our staff level and improved our efficiency. This was based on the competition that we’ve seen and benchmark studies. What we’ve done now is say, ‘Okay, this strategy actually seems to work’, so we want to continue that until 2016. So we set very ambitious targets for cost levels in 2016.

“Basically, what we are focusing on there is improved efficiency and lower cost levels. We want to be among the best in Europe in terms of energy efficiency, because in Europe especially, energy costs are extremely high, so being energy efficient is an advantage. Besides that, we’re also focused on improving our feedstock flexibility at our refinery. Basically we want to be a refinery that is really flexible on which crude oils we can process, because that is a way to gain high value added.”

“We’re also focused on improving our feedstock flexibility at our refinery. Basically we want to be a refinery that is really flexible on which crude oils we can process, because that is a way to gain high value added.” - Rasmus Wille

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To create a culture of efficiency, Statoil collaborates with its key suppliers on best practice for industry standards. “We are very much into making sure that we work together with our suppliers to create joint success. Basically what we want here is to have a very lean organisation where we’re really dependent on our suppliers. We have very close relationships with our suppliers and we do a lot within defining which core competencies we need within ourselves and which ones we need to buy. I think we have very good and close relationships with our suppliers.”

By working closely with key partners, Statoil Refining Denmark has been able to innovate and remain at the cutting edge of the oil sector. “The MK1 diesel is actually a high-value product that we are producing here at our refinery. There are only a few refineries that can actually produce it. We have, over the years, dramatically improved our production of MK1. Of

course, that is a competitive advantage for us to sell that. And we are able to sell the production. So if we can improve our production or make it bigger, we can actually sell it and gain a lot of value from that.”

Statoil sponsors various programs in the areas of science, sports, and culture, particularly focusing on the development of young talent through the company’s Heroes of Tomorrow program. “Within sponsorships, we have to distinguish between the whole Statoil company and Statoil Refining Denmark. Statoil, as a whole company, has a very strategic way of doing that. I’m not an expert in all the areas that we’re in, but, for instance, the world championship in skiing is normally sponsored by Statoil, particularly since we’re a Norwegian company with many Norwegian athletes in those top areas. So that’s one area.

“Going to my part of the business, which is Statoil Refining

Denmark, we also use sponsorship in a strategic way. First of all, we have two different foundations in Denmark; we have a foundation that once a year delivers quite a large prize for the Technical University of Denmark, giving it to a high-value professor or PhD student who has done something good for the industry. And then we have a more local one where we give money to a local person in the neighbourhoods near the refinery. That can go to a singer, to a writer; it could be anyone who has done something good for the community near the refinery.

“As a big production company in a small community, we really help as much as we can there. Besides that, we do give smaller amounts to different causes, but the two that we give to the technical university and local community are our main contributions that we make on a regular basis and in a very strategic way.”

The future for Statoil Refining Denmark should see the company stay efficient and develop further in terms of flexibility. Rasmus is proud of the strides the organisation has made so far and anticipates further success with the trajectory it has achieved. “If we look at the whole of Statoil first, I think we are making very good progress with the whole company. Statoil is actually at the moment, and has been for the last three years in a row, the most successful organisation in finding new oil fields. We have been building an exploration company with the most success in the world over the last couple of years. So as a company, we’re on a really good trip.

“Looking at Statoil Refining Denmark, my dream and hope is that when we come to 2016, we are amongst the most competitive oil refineries in Europe and making a good profit from that. That’s basically where I want to take the Danish part of Statoil and I’m definitely doing what I can to make sure of it.”

“Looking at Statoil Refining Denmark, my dream and hope is that when we come to 2016, we are amongst the most competitive oil refineries in Europe and, thereby, making a good profit from that.” - Ramus Wille

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