Crude Oil Scheduler at Astron Energy (Pty) Ltd.

• The Crude Scheduler is responsible for translating optimised LP campaign plans into detailed crude blending and scheduling instructions, ensuring refinery feedstock meets operational and commercial requirements. This role ensures the right mix of crudes is blended and delivered on time, working closely with operations, LP planners, and crude supply teams to minimise deviations from plan while optimising refinery performance.
• Develop and issue detailed crude blending and scheduling instructions, ensuring alignment with the optimised LP campaign plan.
• Coordinate closely with refinery operations to ensure crude blending is executed efficiently, maintaining refinery stability and maximising yields.
• Liaise with crude supply teams and terminal operators to schedule crude deliveries, ensuring the right grades are available for blending as per the plan.
• Work closely with the refinery team to evaluate and approve new crudes, ensuring they meet processing capability and safety requirements.
• Ensure that approved crudes are compatible with existing refinery operations and can be processed effectively within the planned campaign.
• Monitor tankage levels and crude inventories, ensuring sufficient stocks for blending while optimising working capital and minimising demurrage.
• Manage crude receipts, transfers, and pipeline movements, ensuring logistics constraints are addressed without impacting refinery operations.
• Maintain proactive communication with key stakeholders, including operations, LP planners, crude optimisers, and marine logistics, ensuring constraints, deviations, and optimisation opportunities are addressed in a timely manner.
• Monitor refinery performance vs. crude blending plans, analysing variances and working with operations to make real-time adjustments.
• Support turnaround planning and execution, ensuring feedstock availability and contingency planning for supply disruptions.
• Maintain accurate records of crude movements, blending operations, and inventory changes, supporting oil accounting and performance tracking.
• Identify and contribute to process improvements in crude scheduling and blending, ensuring efficiency gains and alignment with refinery commercial objectives.

Professional Qualifications & Certifications

• Bachelor’s degree in chemical or process engineering, business, or a related field.

Work Experience

• 2+ years of experience in refinery operations, scheduling, blending, or supply management roles.
• Experience working with LP models, refinery optimisation, and commercial planning is preferred.
• Exposure to inventory management, product movement logistics, and refinery operations.

Knowledge & Skills

• Strong understanding of refinery production processes, crude oil properties, blending principles, and refinery constraints
• Knowledge of tank farm and pipeline logistics, ensuring efficient stock management and product transfers.
• Ability to analyse LP plan outputs and translate them into executable blending and scheduling decisions.
• Knowledge of market supply-demand dynamics and the impact of scheduling decisions on commercial performance.
• Strong collaboration skills to interface between operations, planning, optimisation, refining, and supply.
• Proficiency in refinery scheduling tools, inventory management systems, and oil accounting platforms.
• Strong analytical skills and problem-solving ability, with the flexibility to adjust schedules in response to operational changes.
• Excellent attention to detail, ensuring precision in scheduling and oil movement records.
• Effective communication skills to coordinate across operations, supply, and commercial teams.

Application deadline:

• 11 November 2025