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☆ Major oil pipeline outage to hit U.S. stockpiles, refinery supplies
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Arathy Somasekhar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

HOUSTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - An outage on the largest oil pipeline to the United States from Canada could affect inventories at a key U.S. storage hub and cut crude supplies to two oil refining centers, analysts and traders said on Friday. TC Energy's (TRP.TO) Keystone pipeline ferries about 600,000 barrels of Canadian crude per day (bpd) to the United States. Other pipelines between Canada and the United States are at or near capacity, East Daley and data analytics firm Wood Mackenzie estimates. Gulf Coast refiners, which could suffer shortages of heavy Canadian crude, can draw on supplies from offshore Louisiana facilities and from Colombia, Mexico and Ecuador. U.S. physical crude oil grade prices were mixed on Thursday and O'Donnell at East Daley said he expects volatility to continue as long as Keystone remained offline.

Dec 9 (Reuters) - TC Energy (TRP.TO) said on Friday it is evaluating plans to return its Keystone pipeline to service after it leaked 14,000 barrels of oil into a Kansas creek, the largest crude spill in the United States in nearly a decade. TC Energy was expected to restart flows on the segment of the pipeline extending to Patoka, Illinois, Bloomberg News reported earlier, citing sources. This is the third spill of several thousand barrels of crude on the pipeline since it first opened in 2010. TC Energy remained on site with around 100 workers leading the clean-up and containment efforts, and the EPA was providing oversight and monitoring, Ashford said. The oil spill has not threatened the local water supply or forced local residents to evacuate, Washington County Emergency Management Coordinator Randy Hubbard told Reuters.

☆ Russia's Gazprom Neft eyes steady oil refining volumes in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Olesya Astakhova | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The stable output at Gazprom Neft, which controls Russia's largest oil refinery in the western Siberian city of Omsk, shows the resilience of the Russian oil industry despite the harshest Western sanctions in recent history. The 400,000-barrel per day (bpd) Omsk plant, 1,600 km east of Moscow, started operations in 1955 and is Russia's largest oil refinery. He said the company continues modernisation of the plant following the launch of a deep oil refining complex earlier this year. Next year, Gazprom Neft plans to install a primary refining complex at the plant with capacity of 8.4 million tonnes per year. According to Vedernikov, the Omsk refinery is also working on production of the needle coke.

[1/2] Protesters chant slogans at a news conference in support of the ongoing strike by truckers in Seoul, South Korea December 5, 2022. As supplies of fuel and construction materials run low, the South Korean government has stepped up pressure to end the strike. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), an umbrella union under which the truckers' union falls, has called the President's "start work" order the equivalent of martial law and says the government should negotiate. As of Monday afternoon, nearly 100 petrol stations had run out of fuel. That is up from the 21 petrol stations that the industry ministry had said were out of fuel on Nov. 28.

☆ BP doubles down on hydrogen as fuel of the future
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Ron Bousso | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/2] The BP logo is seen at a BP gas station in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., November 24, 2021. But grey hydrogen becomes "blue hydrogen" if the polluting emissions are captured. The IRA offers a $3 per kilogramme tax credit for clean hydrogen, which brings green hydrogen to par or even below the cost of grey and blue hydrogen, according to analysts. "With the hydrogen production tax credits that are now in place, it has ... allowed green hydrogen to be a lot more competitive," McLeod said. Subsidies will initially allow green and blue hydrogen to compete with grey hydrogen, allowing consumers to switch to cleaner fuel, McLeod said.

[1/5] South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks at an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, November 28, 2022. REUTERS/Daewoung KimSEOUL, Dec 4 (Reuters) - South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on Sunday ordered preparations for widening a back-to-work order beyond the cement industry amid a prolonged truckers' strike. Thousands of South Korean truckers have been on strike for more than 10 days, with negotiators for the government and unions making no progress on disagreements over minimum pay rules. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, an umbrella group, is planning a general strike for Tuesday. The government has said it would not expand a minimum pay system for truckers beyond a further three years.

SEOUL, Dec 1 (Reuters) - A strike by South Korean truckers is estimated to have cost 1.6 trillion won ($1.23 billion) in lost shipments, the industry ministry said on Thursday, as a lengthy strike becomes more likely with the government and union far from a compromise. The cement, steel, auto and oil refining industries have seen 1.6 trillion won in lost shipments in seven days since the strike began last week, the ministry said in a statement. This includes 562,600 tonnes of steel worth 731.3 billion, 6,707 cars worth 319.2 billion won, and 259,238 kilolitres of oil products valued at 442.6 billion won stuck in transit, it said. Two people at the meeting on Wednesday said shouting erupted during Wednesday's meeting between the government and strike organiser Cargo Truckers Solidarity Union (CTSU). The government is preparing to potentially order oil industry truckers back to their jobs, the industry ministry said on Thursday, after it issued an unprecedented order to force 2,500 cement industry truckers back to work this week.

☆ Saudi Aramco's Luberef gets regulator nod for IPO
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Steven Scheer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

DUBAI, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Saudi oil giant Aramco's (2222.SE) base oil subsidiary, Luberef, has received the approval from the kingdom's stock market regulator for an initial public offering, the Capital Market Authority said on Thursday. Saudi Aramco Base Oil Company (Luberef), formerly Saudi Aramco Lubricating Oil Refining Co, will offer investors 50.045 million of its shares, equivalent to 29.656% of its share capital. Aramco owns 70% of Luberef and Saudi investment bank Jadwa Investment owns the remaining 30%. Gulf issuers have raised about $16 billion in initial public offerings this year, accounting for about half of total IPO proceeds from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Refinitiv data shows. Saudi Aramco's record listing on Riyadh's Tadawul exchange in late 2019, later boosted to total $29.4 billion in proceeds, was the world's largest IPO.

☆ Europe is loading up on Russian diesel 3 months before an import ban kicks in on refined fuels
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Zahra Tayeb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Europe is scrambling to secure Russian diesel three months before an import ban kicks in. Russian diesel loadings to a European refining hub soared 126% between the first half of November and October, per Reuters. An EU embargo on refined Russian oil products like diesel will take effect in February. Russian diesel loadings headed for the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) oil refining hub rose to 215,000 barrels per day from November 1 to November 12. Europe has been racing to fill up on refined Russian oil products ahead of a European Union embargo set to take hold in February – a penalty in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

☆ India's Essar Group is debt-free after repaying $25 bln
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW DELHI, Nov 21 (Reuters) - India's Essar Group has become debt-free, having settled the remainder of its $25 billion debt after the sale of two ports and a power plant to ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel Ltd (AM/NS), the group said on Monday. Essar, built by brothers Shashi and Ravi Ruia, has sold some of its assets in sectors such as telecom, oil refining and steel over the years to settle its $25 billion debt. "Essar has concluded its asset monetisation programme and completed the debt repayment of $25 billion effectively making the group debt-free from Indian banks and financial institutions," Prashant Ruia, director, Essar Capital, said in a statement. AM/NS, which agreed to buy some infrastructure assets from Essar group for $2.4 billion, in a statement said that the ports and the power plant are captive to its India's operations and are expected to generate operation synergies for the company. Acquisition of these assets will help move raw materials and finished goods between the company's manufacturing facilities in western, eastern and southern India.

NEW YORK, Nov 10 (Reuters) - A Republican U.S. senator plans to submit federal legislation with the support of a major oil industry trade group that would expand national sales of E15, a higher ethanol-gasoline blend. If the bill passed, it would be a win for U.S. corn farmers and the ethanol industry. The governors' proposal raised oil industry concerns about fuel supplies. The bill would represent just the latest push to win nationwide, year-round sales. A federal appeals court last year struck down the Trump's administration approval of year-round E15 sales, arguing it did not have the authority.

☆ Shell buys Asia-based waste oil recycler to boost biofuels output
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SINGAPORE, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Shell Eastern Petroleum, a unit of oil giant Shell (SHEL.L), said on Tuesday it has acquired Asia-based waste oil recycling firm EcoOils to expand its biofuels production. The company will completely take over EcoOils' subsidiaries in Malaysia and a 90% stake in its Indonesian subsidiaries through the deal, Shell Eastern said in a statement, but did not disclose the value of the investment. EcoOils has a production capacity of 65,000 tonnes per year of spent bleaching earth oil, a type of recycled oil that can be used as feedstock for biofuel production. Bleaching earth is a clay material used to absorb impurities during the palm oil refining process. Reporting by Trixie Yap; Editing by Sherry Jacob-PhillipsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ EXCLUSIVE Russia's finance ministry cuts 2023 taxable oil expectations
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Of this, refining volumes were revised down by 56 million tonnes, or almost 20%, to 230.1 million tonnes from 286.1 million tonnes seen in previous forecast. Oil exports, eligible for exports duty, are expected at 178.2 million tonnes, down 19.4% from the earlier made projections. "The estimate for 2022 was reduced to 515 million tonnes, in 2023 to 490 million tonnes. In 2024-2025, the level of oil production will average about 500 million tonnes," it said. So far, Russian oil production, the third-largest after the United States and Saudi Arabia, has been resilient to sanctions, buoyed by rising sales to China and India. .

☆ Chevron's $11.2 billion quarterly profit soars past estimates
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Chevron on Friday reported its second-highest quarterly profit ever, blasting past analysts' estimates, driven by soaring global demand for its oil and gas and rising production from its U.S. oilfields. Chevron posted a third-quarter net profit of $11.2 billion, or $5.78 per share - almost double the $6.1 billion from the same period last year, and well ahead of Wall Street's $4.86 estimate. Overall, oil and gas production was roughly flat last quarter factoring in the sale of some producing properties in Asia. Its oil and gas business posted an operating profit that surged 81% to $9.3 billion, while its oil refining business nearly doubled to $2.5 billion. Still, profit from refining cooled from the second quarter, keeping overall earnings below the company's all-time record of $11.6 billion.

☆ Chevron's $11.2 bln quarterly profit soars past estimates
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Sabrina Valle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Chevron posted a third-quarter net profit of $11.2 billion, or $5.78 per share - almost double the $6.1 billion from the same period last year, and well ahead of Wall Street's $4.86 estimate. The results will back higher project spending and increased oil and gas production next year, Chief Financial Officer Pierre Breber told Reuters. The company's cash flow from operations soared to a record $15.3 billion, far higher than the previous quarter. Its oil and gas business posted an operating profit that surged 81% to $9.3 billion, while its oil refining business nearly doubled to $2.5 billion. Still, profit from refining cooled from the second quarter, keeping overall earnings below the company's all-time record of $11.6 billion.

Its year-earlier net loss totaled 77.2 billion pesos. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has pumped in billions of dollars to support the company to fulfill his pledge of growing domestic production of motor fuels by refining more of Pemex's crude oil production at home during his term. On a call with analysts shortly after the results, Pemex's Chief Financial Officer Carlos Cortes hailed progress on growing domestic refining and fuel sales. "Pemex has been replenishing its participation in the national fuel market," he said, noting that during the third quarter domestic fuel sales grew by nearly 70% year on year. Pemex's domestic oil refining in the third quarter rose more than 16% to hit 807,000 bpd.

☆ Stock picks: Analyst says he likes oil refining but is less keen on natural gas
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailStock picks: Analyst says he likes oil refining but is less keen on natural gasPaul Sankey of Sankey Research says oil prices have been much higher than previously anticipated and companies like Exxon are in "very good shape."

Thanksgiving airfare prices are currently averaging $281 round trip, up 25% from last year, according to travel booking group Hopper. At the same time, the demand for flights has continued to surge as households book travel that was waylaid by the pandemic. On its quarterly earnings call Friday, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said demand for air travel "remains very strong." "Demand has not come close to being quenched by a hectic summer travel season," Bastian said. "For airlines, the cost of flying each seat is higher than ever before, and for consumers, there are fewer seats available to buy and each is going to be more expensive," Berg said.

EU distillate inventories were just 360 million barrels at the end of September, the lowest seasonal level since 2004. The global petroleum and refining system has proved unable to keep up with rapid growth in fuel consumption as a result of the manufacturing and freight-led recovery after the coronavirus pandemic. In any event, accelerating refinery processing will simply push the shortage upstream from the fuel market to the crude market. But with spare capacity almost exhausted, a recession is the most likely route to rebalancing the distillate market in particular and the petroleum market in general. Related columns:- OPEC+ risks overtightening the oil market (Reuters, Oct. 12).

☆ Factbox: How France is forcing striking fuel staff back to work
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

HOW CAN THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT ORDER STRIKING FUEL STAFF BACK TO WORK? Once employees are notified of a requisition order, they have to comply, or they could face up to six months in prison and a 10,000-euro ($9,700) fine. "Requisition orders are very rare, very exceptional," said labour lawyer Zoran Illic, who often represents workers' unions. "I don't know one lawyer who would advise an employee to refuse to comply with a requisition order, because the consequences would be too serious." When nationwide strikes paralysed France’s oil refining industry back in 2010, then-Prime Minister Francois Fillon's conservative government used requisition orders to bring back TotalEnergies' refinery staff back to work.

An oil slick is seen on Santa Barbara creek, following an oil spill in Nembe, Bayelsa, Nigeria, November 25, 2021. "Hundreds of thousands of people (in Benin) organize their survival around this traffic," Boris Houenou, a Beninois economist said of the smuggling of Nigerian gasoline. NNPC recorded gasoline deliveries of 90 million litres a day in March and 83 million in April, Reuters calculations showed. 'CURIOUS CASE'Although the Nigerian government announced plans to remove the gasoline subsidy last year, it then backtracked in July, citing concerns over potential social unrest. And although gasoline is subsidised, the amount ordinary Nigerians pay at the pump remains higher than the set price.

☆ U.S. oil refinery run-rates could top 90% for 3rd quarter in a row
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Erwin Seba | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

This year's final quarter, however, could see operators hold production rates high to grab strong diesel margins, they said. The forecast excludes the potential impact of a major hurricane striking the U.S. Gulf Coast, home of nearly half the nation's oil refining. U.S. crude oil capacity is down nearly 1 million barrels per day since early 2020, to 17.9 million barrels per day (bpd). At the same time, inventories fell to 117.3 million barrels, down 12 million barrels from the same week a year ago. “They’re trying to make more distillate.”Holding runs above 90% runs the risk of further eroding gasoline margins.

Berlin/London (CNN Business) The German government has seized control of three Russian-owned oil refineries to secure supplies of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel. Germany's economy ministry announced on Friday that it had temporarily taken over Russian oil giant Rosneft's subsidiaries in the country. Rosneft Deutschland and RN Refining & Marketing account for about 12% of Germany's oil refining capacity, the ministry said in a statement. Europe has been embroiled in a bitter energy standoff with Russia since Moscow invaded Ukraine in late February, and its imports of Russian oil and natural gas have fallen sharply. Germany's Federal Network Agency, which regulates its gas and electricity industries, will control Rosneft's shares in three refineries: PCK Schwedt, near Berlin, MiRo, near Heidelberg, and Bayernoil in Bavaria.

☆ Nigeria is oil rich and energy poor. It can’t wait around for cheaper batteries
▼ + stars: | 2021-11-03 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

But it’s coming under huge pressure from developed countries to abandon fossil fuels and shift to renewable energy in order to help save the climate. AKINTUNDE AKINLEYE/EPA-EFE/ShutterstockLike the United States, Europe and Britain, Nigeria sees a prominent role for renewable energy, notwithstanding its investments into gas power. “In Nigeria, clean energy is central to our government’s plan to transition to net-zero emissions,” Osinbajo, the vice president, continued. In Nigeria, energy poverty is itself a major driver of emissions, according to Olu Verheijen, the founder of Lagos-based energy advisory business Latimer Energy. This means that in some cases, certainly for Nigeria, gas has an important role to play in providing power.

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