Check the progress report against the ground.
Refinery Progress measures module placement and structure growth on your refinery or LNG site every month from very-high-resolution imagery, so you can read the contractor's curve against an outside view before the drawdown or the contract.
- GSD
- ≤0.5 m (VHR)
- Cadence
- Monthly
- Platform
- VHR satellite / aerial
- Spectral
- RGB
When the curve is all you have
Every month the contractor's progress report arrives with the S-curve and a forecast to finish. If you lend against the project, a technical advisor reads it and walks the site on a rolling schedule. If you trade the product, you have the owner's announcements and the same curve at second hand. Either way the number was produced by the party being measured, and the startup date it implies has not been checked from outside the fence. That gap matters on the day of the drawdown request, or the day you commit volumes to a unit that is supposed to be running.
The monthly cycle, step by step
The monthly number
The progress report
The contractor reports percent complete against plan, built up from its own measurement of each work package.
With Refinery Progress
You get a read of what changed on the ground since the last pass: structure growth and modules placed, from imagery nobody on the project controls.
Still yours
Judging what a percent complete means for the contract. Our read does not give you a percent.
Module placement
The progress report
Placement is a line in the report, confirmed at the next site visit.
With Refinery Progress
A change map shows which bays gained a module since the prior pass, so you can see the sequence against the build plan.
Structure growth
The progress report
Steel, tanks and racks are described in the report and photographed from a few angles on visits.
With Refinery Progress
Height and footprint change is measured across the whole site every month, in the same way each time.
Reading the schedule
The progress report
You compare the S-curve and forecast to finish with the milestone dates in your facility agreement or your capacity outlook.
With Refinery Progress
The monthly read is laid against those same milestone dates, so a gap shows up as a gap in the build sequence and not as a footnote.
Before the drawdown or the contract
The progress report
The technical advisor's report and certificate, or for a trader the owner's latest statement.
With Refinery Progress
An independent read goes in next to them, a month at a time, before the drawdown request or the contracting round.
Still yours
The certificate. The technical advisor and the owner's engineer sign it, not us.
Certifying completion
The progress report
Mechanical completion is declared by the EPC and checked by the owner's engineer, with punch lists and walkdowns.
With Refinery Progress
Nothing changes here. We measure what is visible from above. Mechanical completion and ready for start-up stay with the people who inspect inside the fence.
What arrives each month
Measurement table
Structure growth measurement
Height and footprint change for the structures on your site plan, pass over pass. Answers the monthly-number row.
GIS layer
Module placement change map
Which bays gained a module since the last pass, drawn on your site plan. Answers the module placement row.
Section of the report
Schedule read against your milestones
The month's changes set against the dates you gave us. This is the page to put beside the contractor's S-curve.
PDF
Progress report export
The measurements, the map and the schedule read in one document for the credit file, the supply review or the project controls meeting.
One month, from the first send
Send the site boundary and your milestone dates. We take a pass over the site each month, compare it with the one before, and send the read back. Each month's read arrives in time to sit beside the contractor's report.
Start
Site and milestones
You supply the site boundary or plan, the build sequence if you have it, and the milestone dates you track against.
Each month
The pass
We pick a clear VHR pass over the site, satellite or aerial, at 0.5 m or finer.
The comparison
Structure and modules are measured against the prior pass, and the change is mapped.
Delivery
You get the report and map. Put them next to the progress report and the technical advisor's note, and read the gap.
Limits
What the old method still does better
The technical advisor and the owner's engineer see inside the fence. They check welds, test packs, punch lists and the quality of the work, which no image shows. We cannot tell you that something is built right.
Monthly, not continuous
It is a monthly read. A slip that opens and closes between two passes will not show.
Clouds and clear windows
Optical imagery needs a clear pass. A persistently cloudy month can push the read out, and we say so when it happens.
Resolution floor
At 0.5 m a pixel is about 20 inches across. Modules, tanks, racks and structure height show up. Piping runs, instruments, valves and small equipment do not.
No completion certificate
We measure visible structure and module progress. Mechanical completion is not ours to certify, and no read of ours guarantees a startup date.
Switch if
- You lend against a refinery or LNG build and want an outside read beside the technical advisor's report
- You trade the product and need to know whether a new unit will be running when the schedule says
- You are an EPC contractor and want an independent record of progress against your own milestones
Stay with the progress report alone if
- You need inspection of quality, testing or commissioning status
- You need a certificate for a drawdown or a contract
- You want continuous or daily tracking of the site
Questions before you start a project
Does this replace the technical advisor or the progress report?
No. It sits next to them. The report and the advisor's site work stay as they are, and you get a second view that does not come from the contractor.
Does it certify mechanical completion?
No. It measures visible module placement and structure growth. Certifying completion stays with the EPC and the owner's engineer.
How do we check it against what we already know?
Take a site you already have the contractor's reports for, send the boundary, and compare our reads with the curve and the site visits you have on file.
Does cloud cover delay a monthly read?
It can. The pass needs a clear window, and a cloudy month may push the read out.
What can't it see?
Small equipment, piping runs and anything under cover. Large structure and module changes show.
What do we send and what comes back?
The site boundary and your milestone dates. You get the measurements, the module map and the schedule read, as a report and a GIS layer.
Can we use the results in a credit file or a supply review?
Yes, as an outside-the-fence progress read. Terms for sharing the report with third parties are agreed in writing when the project starts.
Who owns the imagery and the results?
Ownership and licence terms are agreed in writing when you start. If your legal team needs them earlier, ask.
How is it bought and priced?
The price depends on the size of the site and how long you want it tracked. Tell us the project and we will scope it.
Put an outside read next to the progress report.
Send us a site and the milestone dates you are tracking. We will tell you what the imagery can show.