ARPEL and Ecopetrol jointly organized the First Latin American Meeting of Experts in Operations Planning (RANE), which took place on April 27 and 28 in Cartagena, Colombia, and was attended by professionals from Wood Mackenzie, Aspentech, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), YPF, Raizen, Pan American Energy, Ancap, Oleoducto de los Llanos (ODL), Cenit, Ocensa and Ecopetrol.

The RANE was mainly aimed at creating links for the exchange of best practices with the main players in the operations planning process in oil and gas companies in the region, as well as at proposing strategies to leverage the energy transition in operations.

The opening was in charge of Luis Guillermo Aristizábal, General Manager of Planning and Operational Logistics of Ecopetrol, and Ricardo Buyatti, Manager of the Refining Committee of ARPEL.

The agenda of both days included different discussion panels, where the guests shared different points of view on the following topics: International market; Optimization with uncertainty in decision making; Operations planning in Ecopetrol; Centralization of planning functions (Value Chain Optimization); Integrated Margin Analysis Methodology, and Steps towards transition.

The RANE also included six round tables to exchange views and practices on Human Talent; How to involve the energy transition in the planning of the chain; and Technological tools and innovation, among other topics.

As a final treat, the guests had the opportunity to visit the Ecopetrol Innovation Center and the Cartagena Refinery.