May 15, 2020:

Canal Bank, says it will withdraw entirely from Middle East Oil Refinery (Midor), Zawya reports. The operation will generate $30.4 million for Suez Canal Bank as 1.27 percent stake (560,000 shares) will be sold to Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) at $54.7 per share. The financial service institution posted a Q1 2020 net profit of 114.4 million Egyptian pounds ($7.3 million) compared to 128.6 million Egyptian pounds in Q1 2019, Zawya notes. The bank established in 1978 employs around 1,182 people across Egypt. The Egyptian government-controlled Midor has a business portfolio that includes refining of crude oil; and manufacture and distribution of petroleum products including gasoline, jet and diesel fuel, coke, low sulfur and liquefied petroleum gas.

By The North Africa Post

May 15, 2020:

Total SA cut production at its Port Arthur, Texas, refinery to 70% of its 225,500 barrel-per-day (bpd) capacity with a reduction in the operating level of the large crude distillation unit (CDU), said Gulf Coast market sources on Thursday. The large CDU’s production was reduced to improve the efficiency of the unit’s heater, the sources said.

By Reuters

May 14, 2020:

Exxon Mobil Corp completed the restart on Wednesday of the gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracker (FCC) at its 369,024-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in Beaumont, Texas, sources familiar with plant operations said. The 120,000-bpd FCC and a 75,000-bpd reformer were shut on Monday by a power outage that hit several units on the north side of the refinery, the sources said. Exxon began restarting the FCC on Tuesday. Exxon spokesman Jeremy Eikenberry declined to comment. In addition to the FCC and reformer, two hydrotreaters, another reformer and a power plant were knocked out of production by the power outage, the sources said.

By Reuters

May 13, 2020:

We recently notified Phillips 66 that we intend to sue if its two Southern California refineries keep violating the Clean Air Act. COVID-19 has made life for Southern California’s frontline communities even more difficult and dangerous. While families across the region are struggling with shelter-in-place orders, it’s especially challenging for those of us living next door to large polluters like petroleum refineries. Multiple studies have found that the polluted air we breathe puts our communities at greater risk for COVID-19. And this risk keeps growing every day that we are trapped in our homes next door to these facilities that have continued spewing poisonous emissions during the pandemic. While COVID-19 has caused incredible change and upheaval in our communities, the central problem that we experience on a daily basis from the Phillips 66 refineries in Wilmington and Carson remains the same. These refineries, which are just two of the many refineries in our communities, continue to place the burden of breathing pollution on us while making excuses to avoid oversight. The health impacts of this “toxic business as usual” approach are well-known among our families and friends: cancer, respiratory illness, and cardiovascular disease. These devastating health impacts are compounded during the current public health crisis. That is why Earthjustice and East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice recently notified the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD), and Phillips 66 that we intend to file a lawsuit against Phillips 66 for its repeated and ongoing violations of the Clean Air Act.

Like others in our communities, we grew up with refineries in our backyards. This normalized the air pollution we experienced every day. We thought it was normal for the air to feel thick when it entered our lungs, that it was normal to struggle to breathe, and that it was normal to experience strange odors and unexplained headaches. That illusion of normalcy changed when we joined East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice. East Yard’s mission is to empower residents in East L.A., Southeast L.A., and Long Beach to hold agencies and industries accountable for their actions that affect our health and quality of life. East Yard helped us to understand that no one can speak your truth, only you can. The truth here is that the Phillips 66 refineries are poisoning our communities and we are ready to fight back. Phillips 66 operates two petroleum refineries in Wilmington and Carson, California – two of the most environmentally-overburdened communities in the country. These two refineries engage in dangerous operations. Just last year, operations at the Phillips 66 refineries caused multiple fires that forced the LA County Fire Department to issue shelter-in-place orders. While these fires grabbed headlines, they only tell part of the story of Phillips 66’s disregard for the welfare of our communities. Just as devastating for our health is Phillips 66’s repeated and ongoing violations of air pollution laws caused by leaking equipment at its refineries. Such leaking equipment floods our communities every day with toxic emissions that are linked to acute and chronic health conditions. Equipment leaks are the largest source of toxic emissions at petroleum refineries. Accordingly, the South Coast AQMD, the agency responsible for regulating air quality in the LA region, has developed rules under the Clean Air Act that require refineries to follow procedures to repair their equipment leaks. These procedures are similar to how you would repair a leaking faucet in your home. Step one: find the leak. Step two: repair the leak. Step three: confirm that the leak is repaired. Despite the common-sense nature of these procedures, Phillips 66 regularly fails to find, repair, and confirm that its equipment is not leaking. In fact, in the last five years, Phillips 66 failed to repair leaking equipment at its Southern California refineries over six hundred times. These failures resulted, and continue to result, in the release of uncontrolled and unreported emissions. The air district’s own study determined that the Phillips 66 refineries are leaking two hundred times more benzene, a known carcinogen, than they report.

Despite Phillips 66’s repeated violations, the South Coast AQMD has failed to hold Phillips 66 accountable. It is now more important than ever that the air district enforce its own rules, and yet the air district continues to give Phillips 66 a free pass to pollute. Requiring Phillips 66 to repair its leaking equipment would significantly reduce refinery emissions and help to protect our communities that already breathe the most polluted air in the country. If the South Coast AQMD ignores its enforcement responsibility, we are ready to take direct action against Phillips 66. Such direct action is a signal to the air district, Phillips 66, and all of the refineries throughout the region that our communities are prepared to use the full force of the law to fight for the clean air and healthy environments that we deserve.

By Earthjustice.org

May 9, 2020:

While jet fuel and gasoline demand -- and prices -- plunged at the start of the pandemic with driving and flying largely shut down, diesel was more resilient as delivery trucks stayed on the roads. That’s changed now, however, as refiners shifted to make more diesel and some states start to open up, boosting gasoline consumption. Diesel futures’ premium of almost 65 cents a gallon over gasoline has disappeared over the past month, and now the trucking fuel is at the biggest discount since 2017. Inventories are building even as demand to ship fuel on pipelines into the Midwest has been heard to strengthen this week as planting accelerated. “Will the tractors be able to burn fuel faster than the refiners can make it?” Midwest and Gulf Coast fuels broker Steve Mosby said earlier this week. “Man, I don’t know about that.” It may not be enough to stem a growing glut. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said stocks of distillate -- which includes diesel for trucks and home heating fuel -- last week were at a near-three-year high.

Reblending Jet Fuel

Part of the buildup has come from refiners turning jet fuel, which is chemically similar, into diesel as planes sit parked at airports across the country. Production of jet fuel was the lowest since the government began publishing weekly data in 1990, while distillate output increased to the highest since January. “The jet demand disruption was just so severe, and everyone started blending jet into diesel, it caused the diesel yield from refineries to be really at record levels,” Gary K. Simmons, chief commercial officer of Valero Energy Corp., said on an earnings call. “Even despite the lower refinery utilization, we’ve seen diesel production outpacing demand. As of earlier this week, 51% of U.S. corn was planted. That’s up from only 21% at the same point last year, when record flooding beset sowings, and the five-year average of 39%, according to Department of Agriculture data. For soybeans, the second-most widely planted American crop after corn, plantings were 23% complete, ahead of 5% a year ago and 11% on average. A late cold snap may slow planting next week.  “Heavy planting has continued across the Corn Belt this week and for corn, seeding could be in the later stages by next Monday,” Karl Setzer, analyst at AgriVisor LLC, said in an email.A flood of diesel cargoes from Asia has boosted stockpiles in Europe. Gasoil stockpiles in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp supply hub jumped the most since September 2018, according to Insights Global. Demand is also shrinking in Mexico, a major customer of U.S. diesel. More than 10 ships holding some 3 million barrels were waiting off the port of Pajaritos to drop off U.S. diesel and jet. The drop in diesel demand probably confirms the U.S. has entered the recession, said GasBuddy fuels analyst Patrick DeHaan. “Now you are starting to see the ramifications from the jobless rate,” he said. “Commerce is grinding to a halt.”

By Bloomberg