Energy group launches new climate compliant marine fuel for shipping

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BP Marine has announced that it will begin to retail low sulfur fuel that meets new MARPOL regulations limiting the sulfur content of marine fuels. BP is introducing a new very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO), with a maximum 0.5% sulfur content, following successful sea trials with fuel manufactured and supplied by BP in the Amsterdam/Rotterdam/Antwerp (ARA) and Singapore hubs, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Working closely with the International Maritime Organization, customers and partners, BP has developed a marine fuel offer that includes this new VLSFO along with marine gas oil and also high sulfur fuel oil for vessels that are equipped with scrubbers. BP intends to retail the new 0.5% sulfur VLSFO globally.

"BP supports the ambitions of MARPOL to reduce air pollution from ships and we have been actively working with partners to prepare for its introduction. We have undertaken a comprehensive test campaign, conducting ship-board trials of our new very low sulfur fuel. Following the success of these sea trials, and working closely with our customers, we believe we now have a robust commercial offer that will support customers in complying with MARPOL," said Eddie Gauci, Global Head, BP Marine.

In order to manufacture a full range of MARPOL-compliant marine fuels, BP’s refineries have made a number of configuration changes to support the segregation, handling and storage of the fuels.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The United States is expected to drive global oil supply growth over the next five years, adding another 4 million barrels per day to the country’s already booming output, according to the International Energy Agency, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

U.S. oil output will climb to 19.6 MMbpd by 2024 from 15.5 million last year, the Paris-based agency said. Gross crude exports will double, leading to greater competition especially in the Asian market. The outlook points to pressure on demand for crude from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries as the United States and other rivals expand supplies. However, in a boost for the producers, the IEA doesn’t see a peak in global demand yet.

"The United States is increasingly leading the expansion in global oil supplies, with significant growth also seen among other non-OPEC producers, including Brazil, Norway and new producer Guyana," the IEA, an adviser to the United States and other industrialized countries, said in its five-year outlook. A boom in U.S. oil supply due to shale oil has countered efforts by OPEC and its partners led by Russia to restrain supplies. The so-called OPEC+ group began a new round of oil supply cuts in 2019 to support prices.

"By the end of the forecast (2024), oil exports from the United States will overtake Russia and close in on Saudi Arabia, bringing greater diversity of supply," the IEA said. Global oil demand growth is set to ease as China slows but will still rise by an annual average of 1.2 MMbpd to 2024 when it will reach 106.4 MMbpd.

Even so, the IEA doesn’t expect moves such as greater adoption of electric cars to put a cap on demand growth yet. Goldman Sachs has said oil demand could peak by 2024 under some circumstances. "The IEA continues to see no peak in oil demand, as petrochemicals and jet fuel remain the key drivers of growth, particularly in the United States and Asia, more than offsetting a slowdown in gasoline due to efficiency gains and electric cars," it IEA said.

Demand for OPEC crude will rise but given the growth expected from the United States and other non-OPEC producers, Saudi Arabia and its allies will probably have to maintain efforts to withhold supplies. "Market management by producers is likely to remain necessary for some time given the outlook for the call on OPEC crude," the report said.

The IEA forecasts demand for OPEC crude will drop in 2020 and then rise to average 31.3 MMbpd in 2023. The 2023 figure is up by just 600,000 bpd from this year and less than the previous forecast. Iraq, the IEA said, would reinforce its position as a top producer, becoming the world’s third-largest source of new supply and driving growth within OPEC.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The IRPC EurAsia Advisory Board is pleased to announce the preliminary agenda for the downstream industry’s leading technical conference, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Featuring speakers from companies such as Neste, Borealis Polymers, ExxonMobil, Saudi Aramco, BP, Petrobras, Sinopec, Reliance, Eni, MOL Group, and SABIC, IRPC EurAsia is bringing together the industry’s leading minds for two days of learning and networking.

Produced by Hydrocarbon Processing, and supported by Host Sponsor Neste, IRPC EurAsia combines the experience of the industry’s leading technical publication with the operational understanding of top executives and engineers, and includes featured presentations by Neste, KBC, Borealis Polymers and ADNOC’s former chief economist.

Peter Vanacker, Chief Executive Officer, Neste, will start the conference with a focus on transforming business for a low-carbon society.

Stephen George, Chief Economist, KBC, will look to the future in a featured presentation entitled European refining 2050: Turning vision into reality.

Thomas Van de Velde, Vice President, BU Hydrocarbons and Energy, Borealis Polymers, will unpack the circular economy and digitalization as strategic opportunities for the European petrochemical industry.

And Kamel Ben-Naceur, General Manager, Nomadia Energy Consulting and former Chief Economist, ADNOC, will address global decarbonization scenarios for the petrochemical sector.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mexican Energy Minister Rocio Nahle said the oil refinery that the new administration seeks to build will cost between USD6 billion and USD8 billion and could be ready in three years, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Speaking on local radio, Nahle’s cost and timing estimates for the project are in line with what President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said in the past.

As MRC informed earlier, Mexico produces about 1.84 million bpd of crude, more than 60 percent of which is exported, while it imports over 1 million bpd of refined products, including gasoline and diesel, according to U.S. and Mexican government data.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will decide on the seven pending applications for small refinery waivers from the nation's biofuel laws for the 2017 calendar year in the next week, agency administrator Andrew Wheeler said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Once the 2017 applications are decided, the EPA will consider at least 37 waiver applications submitted for 2018, Wheeler said during an energy industry summit. The EPA is expected to rule on all of the applications by March 30.

The EPA, under former administrator Scott Pruitt, greatly expanded the number of small refineries receiving waivers from the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), a law that requires refiners to blend biofuels like ethanol into the fuel pool or buy compliance credits from those who do.

The program has been an economic boom for corn farmers in the Midwest, but merchant refiners say the program has added hundreds of millions of dollars in compliance costs.

Small refineries with capacity of less than 75,000 barrels per day can apply for exemptions from the RFS if they can prove complying with the law would create a disproportionate economic hardship.

Previously, refineries had to prove that complying would hurt profits, but the EPA scrapped that part of the test in 2017, aiding the expansion and allowing oil majors like Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp to get exemptions, Reuters reported.

Refiners have until early 2019 to comply with all or a portion of the 2017 obligation.

The EPA has already granted 29 small refinery exemptions for 2017, up from 19 in 2016 and just seven in 2015. The EPA has yet to deny any application for 2017.

The oil industry converges this week on Houston at CERAWeek, the largest gathering of top energy executives in the Americas, with oil majors showing a bigger presence as the United States has taken the crown as the largest crude producer in the world.

Both U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Energy Secretary Rick Perry will speak at the conference.
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