Finance Analyst – Refinery Operations at Astron Energy (Pty) Ltd.

Job Summary

This position provides financial analysis and reporting for the Cape Town Refinery as part of the Finance Team. Specifically, the position is responsible for providing Financial/Accounting support to the Operations, Technical Services Department, SHEQ and various other departments (all refinery departments excluding Reliability and Maintenance) as well as the Business Teams Managers. The role is also responsible for providing financial support to the Regen and Turnaround annual events.

Responsibilities include assisting Refinery leadership team (RLT) and departmental managers with financial information & in-depth analysis of their results to improve decision-making, identifying areas of financial control weakness to be addressed, understanding and explaining to business the effect of business drivers on their financial performance and providing financial advice and guidance to the business unit on business planning for future activity.

Other than its direct interface with the Refinery operational teams, this position works collaboratively with other refinery finance team members, other departments, and RLT members to continuously identify and improve processes, controls and reporting of financial results for the Cape Town Refinery.

Financial Perspective

Management Reporting:

• Responsible for preparation and distribution of monthly cost centre reporting to cost centre owners
• Responsible for consolidated monthly Opex reporting to RLT, Business Teams and FP&A department.
• Presents reporting on Refinery Opex (Actuals and Forecast) at monthly RLT business performance meeting.

Accounting and Financial reporting

• Monitoring refinery opex and vendor spend and calculation and processing of monthly refinery opex accruals in SAP
• Work closely with Regen/TA cost analyst to ensure Regen/TA cost is appropriately accounted for as either Capex/Opex monthly. Post manual journals for Regen/TA accruals as well as journals to correct cost allocation between Capex/Opex where necessary.
• Ensure Catalyst depreciation and prepayments of catalyst and precious metals (platinum, rhenium) are correctly accounted for in SAP
• Ensure that all financial transactions are processed accurately and timeously per Astron month-end calendar and Astron Energy accounting policy (IFRS)
• Provide accounting policy (IFRS) guidance to business units on treatment of opex vs capex. This role is specifically responsible for driving formulation and continuous improvement of accounting policy for Regen and Turnaround events, acting as conduit between Turnaround department and General Accounting and Tax department to ensure the accounting policy is not only IFRS compliant but also as practical and efficient as possible.
• Ensure monthly account reconciliations for catalyst and precious metals (rhenium, platinum) prepayments are performed on time and that accrued items are timeously cleared from the accruals account
• Assist and manage audit deliverables for internal and external audits as they relate to the refinery finance team.

Customer Perspective

Business planning and Performance Reporting:

• Coordinate, compile and submit a 4-year consolidated OPEX business plan for various departments.  Ensure the opex business plan is reasonable by facilitating discussions with each department head and challenging their proposed business plan to historical actuals and opex targets set in terms of the Business Improvement Plan (BIP)
• Perform monthly variance analysis of Opex vs. business plan and prior month forecast and provide commentary on reasons for variances. Continuously engage with the business to understand key drivers for variances and where relevant, perform volume and price variance analysis on variable cost to gain a deeper understanding of root causes for variances to plan and then use that data to course correct the business to meet their business plan targets.
• Work with the business to identify potential trade-offs within opex budgets to combat headwinds and meet business plan targets.

Organization Engagement

• Week 3 Governance meeting (Present OPEX results and target tracking on a business unit level)
• Monthly Business Team meetings (Present OPEX results and target tracking on a business teams level)
• Assist Departmental heads and team leads/cost centre owners to facilitate monthly cost review meetings. As custodian of refinery opex ensure that these meetings are happening regularly. Discuss variances and ensure forecast is updated accordingly for EBM – leverage financial acumen to influence business decision-making

Special Projects

• Participate in special projects as directed Senior Manager, Refinery Finance. Projects are focused on continuous improvement in the areas of cost (SAP, ARIBA, cost reporting).
• Deal with Ad-hoc requests from various stakeholders for information on refinery opex spend

Business Excellence

Solomon reporting                               

• Support Finance Analyst – Refinery Reliability and Maintenance in the compilation of bi-annual detailed Solomon study and support internal monthly Solomon reporting where required.

Minimum qualifications and Experience Required:

• CA(SA) or CIMA professional qualification
• Minimum of 3 years accounting experience post academic qualification
• Strong financial, analytical and problem-solving skills
• Strong interpersonal and presentation skills, with ability to work well with a broad spectrum of personnel across the organization and constructively provide guidance within a team environment
• Prior SAP and ARIBA knowledge will be highly beneficial