Depending on how you see the politics of the situation, either the people of Venezuela, or their president, Hugo Chavez, have direct ownership and control of PDVSA, and thus it's subsidiary CITGO. In my opinion, the democratically elected Chavez is doing an excellent job of running PDVSA, and has only intervened to the benefit of his fellow Venezuelans. Increasing the tax revenues paid into Venezuela’s coffers by the PDVSA has largely benefited many Venezuelans greatly. Extensive spending on literacy education, medicine, and other ways of directly benefiting the Venezuelan people has made good use of this oil derived Government revenues.

Ensuring that there are managers in place who will support the corporation by ensuring profit is very important to Venezuela, and to the revolution. This politically driven cultural change at the top of PDVSA is a recent critical challenge for CITGO, but by no means is it the most critical or the most recent. Following the counter coup in Venezuela there was an effort to replace upper management in response to their resistance to allowing the company to function profitably under the Bolivarian regime (B). These changes in PDVSA culture have required a change at the very top of CITGO in return; “In interviews, more than a dozen former CITGO managers said a marked shift in CITGO's culture had followed the arrival of the Venezuelan expatriates.” (B1) In interviews, more than a dozen former CITGO managers said a marked shift in CITGO's culture had followed the arrival of the Venezuelan expatriates. In moving the company from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Houston last year, for example, they spent lavishly on a bulletproof enclave at the new head office. “ (B2)

CITGO already has a long history as a community involved, innovative, and profitable corporation in the United States, and this may now be replaced with a even more community involved corporate culture, with an eye towards more horizontal power structures above and below. CITGO is interconnected at the business and technical level within a community of other companies both up and downstream, as well as other more horizontal relations. This web of relations seems bound towards more horizontal structures of power and decision-making. To those of us who feel the culture at large needs to find ways to do the same, this bodes well for possibility of any socially beneficial knowledge and communication technologies that CITGO may help foster the development of.

In April 2004, CITGO announced its decision to move it’s corporate headquarters from Tulsa Oklahoma, to Houston, Texas. The transfer of approximately 700 positions from a total of approximately 1,000 positions in Tulsa began in August 2004. At September 30, 2005, essentially all of the positions have been transferred. While the relocation was substantially completed in July 2005, CITGO expects related costs will continue to be incurred over the next three months. (C)

Employees, revenues, any recent changes, current challenges and major competitors:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/53/53945.html

CITGO and its subsidiaries have a total of approximately 4,000 employees, approximately 1,500 of who are covered by union contracts. Most of these contracts will run out this coming year, how well CITGO treats these employees when the contracts are up will be an important early gauge of whether or not they will live up to this potential. (D)

“CITGO's net income increased 42% to US$625 million last year on revenue of $32.3 billion, up from $25.5 billion in 2003.” (D1)

The main competition CITGO faces is from other big petroleum refining corporations. The biggest challenge they face is staying competitive in a highly fluid, dynamic, and challenging field. This requires agility in these interwoven technical systems at every level.

History information systems historically:

It is hard to get a handle on the IT organization and development at CITGO. This is mainly due to the complex interlinked web of between processes, services and technologies that they have arranged to use and support. The number of tech companies that proudly list CITGO as a client or customer is so long it is a daunting task to list them completely. CITGO is in an industry that seems well served by custom fit systems of custom systems. Apparently, CITGO is at least somewhat responsible for this, as they are often first adopters, and seem to encourage their people to participate in professional organizations, research efforts, and other such collaborative efforts, as well as sponsoring research. There are many officers and managers of the corporation that are members and officers in professional and research organizations, and many give lectures at conferences.

http://www.mdausa.org/news/001212contreras.html

http://www.ce.utexas.edu/org/ccis/a_ccis_report_08.pdf.

http://computerwire-butlergroup-reports.com/HTML/GlobalComputingServices_Sample.pdf.

It was in trying to define which vice officer was in charge of IS that I discovered the executive apparatus seems to refer to IS as "shared services", which is part of X's (is he on board?) title description.

Bob Kostelnik, Vice President Shared Services

As CITGO's Vice President Shared Services, Bob Kostelnik oversees the information technology, procurement, human resources and corporate services groups and is responsible for ensuring these service groups provide quick, consistent service. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri at Rolla with a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering.

Prior to being named to his current position in September 2004, Kostelnik was Vice President Heath, Safety, Security of Assets and Environmental Protection. Since joining CITGO in 1992, he has also served as Vice President and General Manager of CITGO's Corpus Christi refinery and General Manager Operations at the Lake Charles Manufacturing Complex, with operations and maintenance responsibility for the Lake Charles refinery and the CITGO lubricants and wax plant.

http://www.citgo.com/AboutCITGO/Operations/OfficerProfiles.jsp

Indeed, the most effective phrase for searching for I.T. information on CITGO was "shared services" (E1). CITGO does not have a V.P. of MIS, they have a Shared Systems V.P. Also, unexpectedly, many of the best sources for what technologies they use, and sometimes the academic studies of them, were to be found thru providers’ web sites.

It is appropriate that there is such a dominance of the tech culture of CITGO by the phrase "shared systems", for there is much need for flow integration both up and downstream, as well as within the corporation proper. Most of Citgo's raw material comes from its parent company, and it is the major supplier of most CITGO franchises. Other children companies in refining, lubricants, and other petrochemical industries owned by CITGO and PDVSA, also are up or downstream, with a great degree of benefit to be had by integration.

CITGO was an early adopter, in 1995, of corporate wide ERP using SAP and multiparty oversight (F). In 2004 Accenture became a Computerworld Honors Finalist for it’s oversight of the Lyondell-CITGO ERP migration, “SAT Corp./Lyondell-Citgo Refining LP -- Mobile workflow management technology catalyzes a new focus on proactive and preventive maintenance of oil refinery assets, lowering costs and eliminating most secondary failures. Through an innovative enterprise application, Accenture helped CITGO Petroleum Corp. transform the way the company worked. ” (G)

Accenture oversaw the implementation of Enterprise 2000 SAP. (GB)

Since the 1995 SAP implementation, CITGO has been an effective first adapter of systems, services, and platforms that have been customized to work with SAP. In 1996 they bought cutting edge machines from Digital Equipment Corp. including HiNote Ultra II notebooks and Multia handhelds (G1). In 1998 they purchased Logility, Inc.'s demand planning software (G2). They use OsiSoft Real-Time Management (G3), and Intermat maintenance, repair, and operations parts solution, Solutions (G4), for such comprehensive approach to these issues is critical to flow optimization. RCM reliability centered maintenance CITGO uses the functionality of SAP R/3 vers. 3.1H. Pertinent information Modules used are FI, CO, AM, MM, PM, IM, and PS PS is used for investment and maintenance project management... PS objects used include standard WBS, networks, milestones, and user statuses IM is used for capital budgeting and control Projects are assigned to IM positions for budget monitoring SAP Workflow is used for requisition approval “CITGO’s “likes” with the PS module include integration with other modules, excellent reporting capabilities, and its feature-rich design. CITGO’s “gripes” with the PS module include inconsistencies between similar operations, the extensive testing required, and the needs for cash management capabilities, particularly those that link with planning/scheduling. CITGO is looking forward to future “appropriation request” functionalities from R/3 [Parks 1998].” (G5) & SQL Anywhere Studio (G6) In some cases, like TIE Commerce products (G7), it is difficult to assess what advantage is gained, for the processes involved are hard to communicate without exposing proprietary information. Other implementations, like IntelaTrac, which we know is used to read an RFID tag, are easier to understand in principle (G8). CITGO is first to implement corporate-wide Aspen's PetroVantage collaborative trading and logistics 2002 (G9), for use in downstream management and trading. As their name implies, PetroVantage specializes in the petroleum industry. Apparently, the standardization, provided by everything being integrated with SAP, allows fluidity that invites outsourcing almost every part of the process to specialists like Seurat Company (2002), which specializes in Precision Marketing Outsourcing (G10), or Delinea Corporation, an application lifecycle services company serving the energy industry who brought a price call analysis and reporting solution to CITGO, using Market Information Machine (MIM), provided by Logical Information Machines, Inc. (2003)(G11). A small, but important part of this blending of process control and futures management, is the Intergraph ROI (return on investment) analysis tool for creating intelligent P&ID (process and instrumentation diagrams)(G12). This complex web of technologies and services seems amendable to an uncountable number of interlinked, layered, and presumably compatible systems and services. Livelink Enterprise Server, Open Text's leading collaboration and content management software, helped “to administer unstructured documents, streamline internal processes, collaborate across vast distances, improve workforce productivity, and ensure regulatory compliance.” (G14). In this manner, they helped by having the ability to combine praxis and process with management of risk, flow or any other process. Apparently, in this case, Open Text built regulation compliance in to the system. Another special service provider Aquire (G15), seems to have been able to improve the automation and executive management of human resources, and workforce planning in a way that was better than other SAP modules, or is used in addition to others. Many times the only source I found on CITGO’s adoption of technologies and services were the web sites of the providers proudly claiming them as users. For this reason, many cases I could not find dates of adoption or abandonment, or degree of success of the program. In terms of profit margins, CITGO has had much success with migrating to SAP, continuing with it, and adding many layers of profit margin enhancing Shared Services. Some aspects of their business, like price benchmarking, are so critical that they deserve such a service for what would be one simple function in most other industries. “Axxis offers the following software and data products to meet the needs of our Oil Supplier customers: Market Watch Price Subscription, a complete Data Warehouse of Historical Price Data, Private Market Trade eCommerce Portal, an Outsourced Price Notification solution, and Price Determination and build-up applications.” (G16). Another narrow specialization, albeit one with wider application, is seen in Connected Corporation, which provides storage software that backs up and stores users’ desktop, data and storage, to enable smooth migration. (G17). Part of the key to how this can work in an industry so much a part of nuts and bolts physical processes and equipment can be seen in an interview with David Chapman, who, as director of business solutions for Lyondell is very much a core part of the CITGO community of cultures. “We believe one key component is “asset intimacy.” Within the plant, you must understand the equipment from the very beginning of the lifecycle when a plant or unit is designed through its installation operation and decommissioning. The better you understand the equipment and its performance, the better you can predict any potential failure to perform.” (G18). Apparently most of management is focused on understanding the processes they are managing “intimately”. So we can surmise that it is likely that the management culture of CITGO is committed to a focus on the actual process and it’s equipments” use, repair, and lifecycle. There are tremendous costs in unplanned or unnecessary shutdowns for an industry that shaves margins so closely, and also runs a process that is most efficient as a steady state, flow thru, continuous process. Indeed the refining industry is pretty much the model for such processes, as its existence must precede most inputs so used. I surmise that the major lesson for enterprise in this is that intimately understanding one’s business allows one to be enabled to choose an effective way to contract out what may be leased profitably. It almost goes without saying that this is probably more true for a large, powerful, and well linked corporation deploying SAP in concert with partners like Accenture who already specialize in doing just what one needs done. There are many other clues to the strategies, paradigm, cultural attitudes of CITGO, especially as can be seen in the actions of its many publicly active leadership; the following summary of an ARC conference speech is included for its appropriateness to the current issues of Organizational Informatics. “Refiner CITGO had challenges of its own in trying to move to an RPM paradigm.  Chief among those challenges was a plant operations culture where production was the primary goal.  As ARC has written before, and CITGO management realizes, a focus solely on production is sub-optimal. Engaging Kesler Engineering and General Physics, CITGO began a process that would combine RPM with Knowledge Management (KM) to improve the operating performance at its 165,000 BPD refinery in Corpus Christi.  CITGO knew that it had the information/knowledge embedded within the various applications currently in use (e.g., OSIsoft's PI and Process Book), the challenge was to recraft how that information was presented to operators to insure that they were focusing on the right challenges and opportunities.  The end result is a number of role-based "dashboards" that provide operators with real-time visibility to opportunities for profit improvements from actions such as modifying the use of a physical asset to exploiting a dip in energy costs. “Refiner CITGO had challenges of its own in trying to move to an RPM paradigm.  Chief among those challenges was a plant operations culture where production was the primary goal.  As ARC has written before, and CITGO management realizes, a focus solely on production is sub-optimal. Engaging Kesler Engineering and General Physics, CITGO began a process that would combine RPM with Knowledge Management (KM) to improve the operating performance at its 165,000 BPD refinery in Corpus Christi.  CITGO knew that it had the information/knowledge embedded within the various applications currently in use (e.g., OSIsoft's PI and Process Book), the challenge was to recraft how that information was presented to operators to insure that they were focusing on the right challenges and opportunities.  The end result is a number of role-based "dashboards" that provide operators with real-time visibility to opportunities for profit improvements from actions such as modifying the use of a physical asset to exploiting a dip in energy costs. “While CITGO achieved an enviable Return on Investment (ROI) in under four months from this initiative, it was not without some challenges.  CITGO ran into two problems: the challenge of getting internal groups to talk to one another and overcoming the fears of operators that this initiative would just create one more way for senior management to beat on them for not meeting specific numbers.” (G20) organizational culture. rituals, status hierarchies, shared myths, enforcement mechanisms and socialization methods: The following history of CITGO is culled mostly from the website of CITGO, so one might refer to it as the corporate shared mythos. I have noted where it diverges from other sources; in some cases this seems very interesting. "CITGO was officially born in the spring of 1983, but the company traces its heritage back to the early 1900s and a pioneer oilman named Henry L. Doherty." (H) "Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company, (ITIO) a predecessor to Cities Service, is formed 1901" (I) "Henry L. Doherty creates Cities Service Company to supply gas and electricity to small public utilities" 1910 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citgo "Cities Service buys the Empire Gas Company. Cities Service has seven refineries" 1919 http://www.citgo.com/AboutCITGO/CITGOTimeline/CITGOTimeline1910s.jsp Cities Service buys a bulk lubricants plant and warehouse in Chicago. 1930 In 1931, Cities Service completed the nation's first long-distance high pressure natural gas transportation system, a 24-inch pipeline stretching some 1,000 miles from Amarillo, Texas, to Chicago, Illinois. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citgo http://www.citgo.com/AboutCITGO/CITGOTimeline/CITGOTimeline1930s.jsp Cities Service begins stripping itself of 166 utility subsidiaries in compliance with the Public Utilities Holding Act of 1935. 1940 The first steps to liquidate investments in its public utilities were taken in 1943 and affected over 250 different utility corporations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citgo (cite only) Cities Service completes construction of "the Big Inch"-the biggest, longest pipeline ever-to help supply petroleum products to the war effort. 1943 http://www.citgo.com/AboutCITGO/CITGOTimeline/CITGOTimeline1940s.jsp The Citgo gasoline brand was inaugurated in 1965 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citgo (only cite) CITGO Quik Marts come into being, increasing sales volume from 30,000 gallons a month to more than 100,000 gallons per retail outlet. 1972 http://www.citgo.com/AboutCITGO/CITGOTimeline/CITGOTimeline1970s.jsp Takeover battle with Mesa Petroleum continues; merger attempt with Gulf Oil Corporation fails. Occidental Petroleum purchases Cities Service. 1982 CITGO Petroleum Corporation created as standalone refining, marketing and transportation company registered in the state of Delaware; purchased by the Southland Company, operators of the 7-Eleven chain of convenience stores. 1983 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citgo First long term crude contracts signed with Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA). 1985 Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), the national oil company of Venezuela, buys 50 percent of CITGO from Southland. 1986 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citgo CITGO begins its long-term relationship with the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA), donating $750,000. 1986 CITGO refineries receive more than half of their feedstocks from PDVSA. 1987 http://www.citgo.com/AboutCITGO/CITGOTimeline/CITGOTimeline1980s.jsp CITGO becomes wholly owned by PDVSA upon its acquisition of the remaining half of the company. 1990 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citgo The Corpus Christi Refinery is recognized as the "Automated Plant of the Year" by Control Magazine. 1996 Enterprise-wide software SAP implemented. 1997 The newly revamped citgo.com Web site is launched with the Extranet for CITGO Marketers following shortly. 1997 CITGO launches Total Facilities Management and Image Enhancement projects. 1998 http://www.citgo.com/AboutCITGO/CITGOTimeline/CITGOTimeline1990s.jsp Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez visits CITGO's refinery in Lake Charles. 2000 http://www.citgo.com/AboutCITGO/CITGOTimeline/CITGOTimeline 2000s.jsp CITGO and its Marketers raise more than $1 million to aid the victims of the September 11 terrorist attack. 2001 CITGO adopts new vision: "To be the World's Benchmark Energy Corporation" along with a new Mission and Values statement. 2001 CITGO employee and corporate United Way contributions exceed $1.3 million. CITGO employees and Marketers donate a record $5.5 million to MDA. 2002 CITGO's headquarters moved to Houston, Texas. 2004 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citgo The Perfect Game introduced as the rallying cry to achieving zero safety incidents, zero environmental incidents and $1 billion in income. 2004 http://www.citgo.com/AboutCITGO/CITGOTimeline/CITGOTimeline2000s.jsp CITGO promotes these waste reduction ideas in a section of its weekly newsletter dedicated to sharing "Words From WasteWise." http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/reduce/wstewise/pubs/wwupda4.txt The CITGO Lake Charles Refinery is one of the safest and most environmentally responsible facilities in the nation. ... CITGO Lake Charles has made the needs of the community a high priority. http://www.laia.com/citgo.asp asset intimacy http://www.engineerlive.com/european-chemical-engineer/interview-opinion/2131/asset-intimacy-and-measuring-the-return-on-investment-in-plant.thtml http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:QqSCnyXyC7YJ:ppm.intergraph.com/library/reprints/rp-4-3AssetIntimacy-us.pdf+erp+citgo&hl=en&client=firefox-a production focus sub-optimal - KM & RPM http://www.arcweb.com/Events/forums/0604.htm IS Department Organization, Career Structure & Culture, how big, and how it is structured, particularly what the main subgroups are within it. what positions are considered "entry level" in IS, what qualifications are needed, and how a successful career would progress. IS/user relations, status hierarchies, the prestige of technical expertise within IS and any traditions or rituals: erp & integration. Identify when it was installed, what problems they faced in implementation, anything you can discover on time/cost/use of consultants, which modules are in use, what benefits appeared: http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:8gGQOOxuWNoJ:www.lim.com/pdfdocs/marketing/citgo_pressrelease.pdf+citgo+erp&hl=en&client=firefox-a http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:RsXLig8EP1sJ:www.ianywhere.com/downloads/success_stories/sat.pdf+citgo+erp&hl=en&client=firefox-a Databases, Data mining, Data Warehousing, CRM and Knowledge Management: Citgo, emphasized that they actually gained deeper insight into the value drivers of their business as a result of tying data to strategic objectives http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:JHOyOO4m3a8J:studies.hec.fr/object/SEC/file/A/GBEGXJNMZBXWQMWGSMXTGVRUAXWLHYCY/Data_to_Knowledge_Davenport.pdf+citgo+Databases,+Data+mining,+Data+Warehousing,+CRM+and+Knowledge+Management&hl=en&client=firefox-a http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:51Sg7gEIW_cJ:bridge.ecn.purdue.edu/~spave/Technical%2520Info/Meetings/Mix%2520ETG%2520Aug%25202002%2520Minnesota/Mix%2520ETG%2520Minutes%2520Aug%25202002%2520FINAL.pdf+citgo+%22Data+mining%22+&hl=en&client=firefox-a http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:bQ9NYZJOlJEJ:www.cii-benchmarking.org/downloads/2005brochure.pdf+citgo+%22Data+mining%22+&hl=en&client=firefox-a http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/mod_print_view.cfm?this_id=417552&u=edi&issue_id=000083988&show=F,T,T,T,F,Article,F,F,F,F,T,T,F,F,T,T Refiner CITGO had challenges of its own in trying to move to an RPM paradigm.  Chief among those challenges was a plant operations culture where production was the primary goal.  As ARC has written before, and CITGO management realizes, a focus solely on production is sub-optimal. Engaging Kesler Engineering and General Physics, CITGO began a process that would combine RPM with Knowledge Management (KM) to improve the operating performance at its 165,000 BPD refinery in Corpus Christi.  CITGO knew that it had the information/knowledge embedded within the various applications currently in use (e.g., OSIsoft's PI and Process Book), the challenge was to recraft how that information was presented to operators to insure that they were focusing on the right challenges and opportunities.  The end result is a number of role-based "dashboards" that provide operators with real-time visibility to opportunities for profit improvements from actions such as modifying the use of a physical asset to exploiting a dip in energy costs. While CITGO achieved an enviable Return on Investment (ROI) in under four months from this initiative, it was not without some challenges.  CITGO ran into two problems: the challenge of getting internal groups to talk to one another and overcoming the fears of operators that this initiative would just create one more way for senior management to beat on them for not meeting specific numbers.
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