Associate Director - Natural gas

Westlake•Houston, TX

About The Position

The Associate Director Natural Gas is a critical position for Westlake with annual expenditures of $500 million to $1 billion under management. The position is responsible for the management of all aspects of the acquisition and supply of natural gas (NG) to Westlake’s facilities. Responsible for the negotiation, execution and ongoing administration of all NG contracts. The incumbent will develop, present and execute long-term supply strategies for NG to ensure long-term supply reliability and Westlake’s low cost position. Provide guidance for Westlake’s Commodity Risk Management program including the development of hedging / trading strategies that reduce Westlake’s commodity price risk exposure. Represent Westlake and build strong relationships with suppliers, vendors, outside consultants and other key market participants. Monitor and analyze commodity market changes and communicate business impacts to senior management and other key internal stakeholders.

Requirements

Requires Bachelor of Science, Engineering or Business Administration, with MBA or advanced degree desirable, plus minimum 12 years natural gas physical trading experience.
Requires experience in contract negotiations, supply chain management, production planning, computing applications, and written/verbal presentations.
Knowledge of industry infrastructure, market factors affecting supply/demand, production and derivative processing economics, trading and derivatives, price risk management, product distribution and storage, companies and individuals in purchasing roles, and generally accepted practices for conducting business in the industry.

Responsibilities

Optimize the purchase and sale of NG for Westlake’s plants at the lowest all-in cost with 100% supply reliability.
Identify, develop and execute both short-term and long-term supply strategies for NG to improve Westlake’s profitability and competitive cost position.
Advise on Westlake’s Commodity Risk Management activities.
Responsible for identifying, evaluating and recommending hedging and trading strategies that reduce Westlake’s price exposure to natural gas and other relevant commodities.
Accountable for all phases of the contract management process for NG for all existing and new agreements. This includes contract document retention and on-going administration to verify the accuracy of purchase orders, invoices, and other contract terms.
Present market analysis for Westlake’s monthly business review meetings and communicate price forecasts to key internal stakeholders.
Monitor, analyze and communicate major market changes or trends in the global and regional crude oil, natural gas and NG markets highlighting potential opportunities or threats to Westlake.
Maintain Westlake’s long term NG supply and demand balances and stay up-to-date on commodity fundamentals
Communicate and coordinate with plant operations and supply chain support functions to drive performance metrics on costs, reliability and feedstock quality.
Interaction with other support functions (logistics, accounting, credit, etc.) to verify feedstock and logistics costs.
Key active participant in the Olefins Feedstock Optimization process for Westlake’s Lake Charles ethylene plants. Also lead feedstock update for weekly Lake Charles plant meeting.
Develop and maintain good commercial relationships with current suppliers & vendors and continually seek to develop new relationships.
Represent Westlake at various industry associations and conferences.
Mentor natural gas schedulers to develop their skills and knowledge of Westlake’s system and NG physical market dynamics.
Any additional responsibilities or tasks as assigned.
Comply with all Company policies and procedures.
Fully supports Company goals of continuous improvement and operational excellence at strategic and tactical levels including reviewing area of responsibility for improvement opportunities to initiate projects or communicate ideas to management as well as active participation on project teams.