Tag: refineries

Saudi Arabia has its eye on constructing an oil refinery in South Africa as part of a pledge to invest as much as $10 billion in Africa’s most developed economy, according to Bloomberg. The Saudi Aramco and South Africa's Central Energy Fund are to conduct joint surveys based on a refinery and petrochemical complex. The negotiations highlight South Africa’s aspiration to add a refinery, which it has under consideration for a decade.

According to EIA's report, global oil refining capacity is expected to increase rapidly, resulting to a product boost from diesel, to gasoline, to marine fuel. The capacity will grow by 2.6 million barrels per day and the demand for the refined products will be approximately on 1.1 million barrels per day.

Output cuts in oil-rich Alberta and Saudi Arabia result to leaving heavy-crude refiners from the Gulf of Mexico to Asia in a challenging position. The Saudis are expected to mostly focus on paring output of heavy crude as they lead efforts to rebalance the global market, according to Bloomberg. Although curtailments in Canada have driven local prices at a record in almost a decade, others as Arab Heavy and Heavy Louisiana Sweet are also gaining a powerful position. 

Saras will construct new bunkering terminal at its plant in Sardinia in order to market a cleaner marine fuel with even lower sulphur content which will be compliant with the IMO 2020 global sulphur limit. The Italian energy provider is investing in infrastructure that will allow ships to dock outside its 300,000-barrels-per-day Sarroch refinery in Sardinia to directly load ultra-low-sulphur marine fuel oil.

Irving Oil confirmed that a 'major incident' took place at Canada's largest refinery, after an explosion was reported at the facility. The refinery's workers have all been accounted for, and the site of the incident is now isolated and contained. The company has started planning to have its turnaround team back on site. 

As of 1 January 2018, US operable atmospheric crude distillation capacity totaled 18.6 million b/cd, a slight decrease of 0.1% since the beginning of 2017, according to EIA. Annual operable crude oil distillation unit capacity had increased slightly in each of the five years before 2018.

HFO for sea-going vessels does not comply with European rules for chemicals, while there is insufficient report of what the fuel contains. Users, emergency services workers, competent authorities and terminals therefore do not have a reliable picture of the risks, according to investigations by ILT.

With the IMO regulations coming in 2020 about the sulphur cap, US refiners are preparing for the shift in the ship fuel supply. That change will increase demand for low sulphur fuels, and US refiners are ready to capture about 3m bbl/day global marine fuel market. Namely, across many US refiner’s earnings, distillate yields will be increased.

The coming decades seem to hide significant carbon transition risks for global oil refiners, as a tightening regulatory environment and technological changes impact demand, according to Moody's Investors Service. Oil consumption is responsible for more than 30% of carbon emissions globally, making oil refineries and the consumption of refined products key targets for carbon reduction policies.