On October 30, ExxonMobil Refining, Supply, Research and Engineering Control Manager Paul J. Sanford paid a visit to FREP. Company Chairman & President Gu Yuefeng and Vice President Parut Chatikavanij met with Paul and the two sides had a friendly communication, accompanied by General Manager of Finance Department Mr. Joe Francis.

First of all, on behalf of OOP President Gu Yuefeng extended welcome to Paul to visit FREP and debriefed him the overall situations of FREP. He said, “I have joined FREP for a full year by today. Over this year the stakeholders had a very joyful cooperation and the company made huge changes. I think Mr. Joe Francis is most impressed by this.”

President Gu Yuefeng stated that safety performance was improved with better indicators compared with last year. We checked in depth OIMS system against government requirements for excellent integration. The government raised higher and higher requirements of safety and environmental protection. The company rolled out Hand-in-Hand activities and reinforced environmental protection. Wastewater discharge was significantly reduced since begging of this year, as shown by bettered performance indicators, especially the drop of wastewater discharge saved a huge amount of sewage charge.

President Gu Yuefeng stated the company business performance was very good at present and basically got rid of losses. Such achievements under the circumstances with market constraint and diesel sales constraint make us very satisfied with our team and business partners. FREP has taken many initiatives, including purchase of a great many naphtha and propane and plan to buy LPG as well instead of producing all chemical raw materials. Furthermore, the company sticks to the concept of low inventory. The company does well in low inventory this year, which is one of the reasons for adequate cash flow nowadays. At the same time, under the leadership of Mr. Joe Francis, the company sets very challenging targets to reduce material inventory. These initiatives well guarantee the better business performance this year. With a large scope of facilities and advanced process technology, FREP is a very good company and the shareholders make the right decisions. Though we are still confronted with tough challenges, OOP has the confidence to work with the management and spare no efforts to run the company well and bring returns to shareholders as soon as possible.

Vice President Parut Chatikavanij said it took ExxonMobil decades to implement OIMS and FREP just started off. PADP was just carried out for three or four years. We are rolling out GRS as well. The most important thing for OOP is to ensure the right direction of development. It is most important of company cultures to fulfill roles and responsibilities, the five dimensions of leadership that were introduced at the begging of JV formation, as well as ownership and the sense of accountability. A seminar will be organized in three weeks ahead of Turnaround to collect input and advice from levels of management in the form of brainstorming. As long as this issue could be resolved, a lot of problems will be readily solved and ensure the right direction.

Paul said he was glad to visit FREP and understood that FREP shared the same concept with ExxonMobil in terms of safety, environmental protection and operation integrity, which was reassuring. He was also very happy to see FREP’s improvement of profit, which will facilitate and fund FREP to carry out some desired work. He said he got the chance to meet with Mr. Joe Francis and his team this morning, from which he got knowledge of company business plan and key work presently in addition to the current challenges. He hoped the shareholders could further strengthen cooperation to promote continuous improvement of JV performance and profitability.

After the meeting, Turnaround Group Manager Zhang Yingchun from Mechanical Department shared the overview of 2015 Turnaround with Paul. Under the company of Mr. Joe Francis, Paul visited with interest FREP exhibition hall, the site of process units, EO/EG unit and Liyuwei Terminal. (XiaoWanyuan)