May 9, 2020:

Exxon Mobil Corp XOM.N completed restarting a small crude distillation unit (CDU) on Thursday night at its 502,500-barrel-per-day (bpd) Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery for the first time since late March, sources familiar with plant operations said on Friday. Exxon spokesman Jeremy Eikenberry declined to comment. The 90,000-bpd PSLA 7 CDU was shut on March 30 as motor fuel demand was being hit by the response to the coronavirus pandemic, the sources said. The unit began restarting on Thursday morning.

By Reuters

May 7, 2020:

The two refineries in Whatcom County’s Cherry Point industrial zone, BP and Phillips 66, have made donations to assist with Covid-19 relief efforts. In an April 29 news release, BP said that it will supply three million gallons of jet fuel to FedEx Express charter flights and Alaska Airlines at no cost to support the timely delivery of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other essential goods to areas of the U.S. at greatest risk for Covid-19. The London-based multinational energy company said that it will offset the carbon emissions of all donated fuel deliveries. “Frontline medical providers depend on PPE to treat patients suffering from Covid-19 and to save lives,” said Susan Dio, chairman and president of BP America. “BP is working to help deliver this equipment quickly by donating jet fuel to air carriers who will get supplies where they need to go.” The donation to FedEx Express will be used for international air transportation to and from the U.S. to deliver medical supplies including gloves, gowns, ventilators and masks. Supplies will be directed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to communities in greatest need based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The fuel will be supplied by BP’s Whiting refinery in Whiting, Indiana and BP’s Cherry Point refinery in Blaine and will be delivered to the Chicago O’Hare and Seattle-Tacoma International airports, respectively. The fuel will supply more than 45 FedEx Express charter flights for HHS. Fuel will also be donated from BP’s Cherry Point refinery to Alaska Airlines to support the availability of food, medical supplies, mail and emergency transportation in several remote Alaska communities. In an April 16 news release, Houston-based Phillips 66 announced that it will contribute $3 million to Covid-19 relief efforts in the U.S. and U.K. Locally, the Phillips 66 Ferndale refinery is donating $50,000 as part of the overall contribution, including $25,000 to the Whatcom Community Foundation Resilience Fund and $12,500 each to the Ferndale and Bellingham food banks.

Local Phillips 66 employees have also been supporting Whatcom County’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) by filling roles within the Whatcom Unified Command structure in logistics, planning and safety. “Their collective volunteer efforts reflect close to 400 hours of service,” said the company’s release. In March, the Phillips 66 Ferndale refinery donated an initial $60,000 to the county’s EOC for response management software support and training, and it also provided masks and gloves to Whatcom Unified Command, the multi-government group that is overseeing virus response in Whatcom County.

By thenorthernlight.com

May 5, 2020:

Taking advantage of plummeting oilNSE -2.59 % prices, Assam based Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) will import 21 TMT(Thousand Metric Tonnes)TMT of crude oil from Petronas Malaysia. Managing Director of NRL S K Barua tweeted, “NRL is importing 21TMT crude oil from Petronas through Haldia port to be rail freighted to Numaligarh for future processing. A step towards ensuring energy security.” An official in the company stated, “The crude oil vessel MT S-Trader has sailed off from Miri Port of Malaysia on Tuesday and is expected to reach Haldia on May 12 Crude Oil is presently traded in the market in the range of 19 USD per BBL to 24 USD per BBL against normal crude oil average price of 50 to 55 USD / BBL. Crude oil price varies based on its characteristics.”

In June 2019, NRL had imported a similar quantity of Crude oil from Miri Port at Haldia and transported the same to Numaligarh by Rail thereby establishing a process whereby NRL can take advantage and import crude oil for processing in Refinery in favorable conditions. The official added, “It would also save the depletion of indigenous Crude Oil to that extent that the Refinery processes from the Oil fields of Assam other than ensuring energy security”.

By Economic Times

My 4, 2020:

Transportation fuel demand has decreased since early March 2020 as a result of reduced economic activity and stay-at-home orders aimed at slowing the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). U.S. refineries have reduced the amount of crude oil and other inputs that they process (also known as refinery runs). U.S. refinery runs fell for four consecutive weeks, reaching 12.8 million barrels per day (b/d) in the week ending April 17, and increased slightly to 13.2 million b/d for the week ending April 24, or nearly 21% lower than the previous five-year average for this time of year. From March 13 (when a national emergency was declared in the United States) to April 24, finished motor gasoline consumption (measured as product supplied) fell to 5.1 million b/d in the week ending April 3, the least product supplied recorded since the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) began tracking these data in 1991. In the weeks since then, gasoline product supplied has risen to 5.9 million b/d, or about 37% lower than the previous five-year average for late April. Jet fuel product supplied set a record low during the week of April 10, falling to 463,000 b/d. Jet fuel product supplied increased during the past two weeks, averaging 800,000 b/d for the week ending April 24, or 51% lower than the previous five-year average. Initially, demand for distillate was not as affected as demand for motor gasoline and jet fuel. From March 13 to April 3, distillate fuel product supplied remained within the previous five-year range. Since April 3, however, distillate product supplied fell to its lowest level in 21 years of 2.8 million b/d for the week of April 10. Since then, distillate fuel product supplied has increased slightly and averaged 3.2 million b/d for the week ending April 24.

Distillate fuel oil is primarily consumed as diesel fuel, the predominant fuel of the trucking, locomotive, and agricultural sectors. Increased demand for home delivery and distribution of necessary goods and services has likely supported the distillate product supplied. Recent declines in broad economic activity may be reducing overall distillate demand, despite some support from trucking activity. As refinery runs have fallen, refiners have also changed the mix of petroleum products they are producing. Normally (based on the 2019 average), a barrel of crude oil and other inputs will yield 51% motor gasoline, 31% distillate, and 11% jet fuel. U.S. refiners have recently decreased their production of motor gasoline and jet fuel and increased their production of distillate. U.S. refiner production of motor gasoline fell from 7.9 million b/d for the week ending March 13 to 5.4 million b/d for the week ending April 24. Production of jet fuel fell from 1.6 million b/d to 601,000 b/d during the same period, but production of distillate fuel oil increased from 4.7 million b/d to 4.9 million b/d. The ratio of distillate production divided by crude oil inputs, also known as the distillate yield, reached 40% for the week ending April 17, the highest percentage yield of distillate since at least 1990 when data on refinery inputs started being collected by EIA. Distillate yields fell slightly, to 39%, in the following week. Motor gasoline yields were at a record low of 43% in the week ending April 24.

By www.bicmagazine.com

May 2, 2020:

Turkey’s largest oil refiner Tüpraş will temporarily stop production at its 220,000-barrel-per-day İzmir oil refinery as coronavirus lockdowns hit fuel demand, the firm has said in a stock exchange filing. Output at the refinery, which has an annual processing capacity of 11.9 million tons, will be suspended from May 5 until July 1, according to the filing. “We have revised downwards our expectation for our 2020 production in line with the negative impact of global Covid-19 outbreak on fuel demand. In this framework, our production at İzmir Refinery will be temporarily and in phases halted,” the company said. Tüpraş, owned by Koç Holding, is operating 4 refineries with a total processing capacity of 30 million tons. The company also holds more than half of the country’s petroleum products storage capacity of nearly 7 million cubic meters, or 44,000 barrels. After the crash in oil prices in early March, Turkey’s storage tanks filled up, according to local media.

Under normal level of demand conditions, that amount of oil would be consumed in Turkey in about 70 days. However, the demand is low due to the intercity and international travel restrictions imposed by the government to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Flag carrier company Turkish Airlines has suspended all domestic and foreign passenger flights until May 28.

By www.hurriyetdailynews.com