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PetroRef.
com
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Below is a random listing of
external events, categorized monthly, which could influence the supply and
pricing of petroleum products on the U.S. West Coast. Drawing
conclusions, identifying trends, and assigning significance to these events
is the responsibility of the viewer.
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2008 |
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FEB |
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JAN |
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RINs are the basic currency for compliance
and trades in the Renewable Fuel Standard program.
Marketers are weighing the
implications of 2008's much larger RFS - 9 billion
gallons, up from 4.7 billion in 2007 and higher than
the former 2008 mandate of 5.4 billion. -
SK Corp. doubled its average jet fuel
exports to the United States in 2007 to about 50,000
b/d, and expects to raise its ultra-low-sulfur
diesel shipments to the U.S.
-
Earth Policy Institute has advised that "The
world is facing the most severe food price inflation
in history" -
Robert Chandran, chairman and chief executive of
ChemOil, died in a helicopter crash on Monday in
Indonesia's Riau province. As a result the opening
of the Helios Terminal Corp. storage facility has
been delayed.
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2007 |
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DEC |
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US-based
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners has completed its $153
million
East Line expansion
that increases pipeline capacity between Texas and
Arizona. The expansion replaced almost 130 miles of
8-inch diameter pipeline between El Paso, Texas, and
Tucson, Arizona, with a 16-inch diameter pipe,
increasing capacity on the East Line to over 200,000
barrels a day.
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Congress passed the new
Energy Bill, which would begin in 2008 and
require usage of 9 billion gallons of biofuels and
11.1 billion gallons the following year.
-
Ethanol
producers are suffering due to
poor ethanol distribution
logistics. This is resulting in
record high inventories and disastrous producer
margins.
-
Pacific Ethanol
announced this morning it is suspending construction
of its 50-million-gal/yr planned ethanol plant in
Imperial Valley, Calif., "until the market
improves."
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A
Korean tanker spilled 60,000
barrels of crude in Korean water which may lead to
higher tanker rates for if South Korean ship
charterers decide to dump single-hull tankers.
The
European Biodiesel Board (EBB)
is initiating legal action against B99 imports which
receive the $1.00 U.S. tax credit and European tax
breaks and subsidies. -
Canada's federal
government said this week that it plans to make
another push for legislation that would set
nationwide ethanol and biodiesel content standards
for most fuel within the next several years.
-
For
2008, EPA will require refiners and importers blend
4.66% renewable fuels
in gasoline under the current renewable fuels
standard (RFS) rules.
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NOV |
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Catalyst
producer Albemarle Corp., announced success in
converting FCCU units
at refineries into making diesel to avoid future
gasoline surpluses in Europe.
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Expansion of the TraPac terminal in the Port of LA –
if approved – will be the
first major development
project at the port for the past seven years.
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After 70
years, Western chain marketer
Time Oil Co., will
sell its stations and exit the petroleum industry.
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The CFTC
Commitments of Traders' report
(COT) shows a net long position in RBOB
nearly 53.6-million barrels of unleaded regular
gasoline.
-
Shell
faces a number of legal issues as it plans to sell
the balance of its stations in SoCal.. -
Green Earth Fuels begins production of biodiesel
at its 45/90 million gallon per year facility at
Kinder Morgan's Galena Park terminal. -
Kern Oil & Refining
will be sold to NTR Acquisition Company (NTR),
a special
purpose acquisition company, will purchase the Kern
refinery for $286.5-million. -
Shell to sell or joint venture 1,800 retail
outlets which market about 3 billion gallons of
product annually in the US. -
Wespac
announces in delay of jet fuel pipeline to LAX
Airport. -
New
West Petroleum announces its intention to sell
29 ExxonMobil station in SoCal.
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OCT |
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SEP |
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AUG |
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JLY |
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JUN |
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MAY |
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Tesoro bought the Shell Wilmington Refinery and
278 Shell stations in southern California. The
stations will remain Shell branded and will be
supplied by Tesoro. The combined value of the
transaction was put at $1.76 billion.
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APR |
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MAR |
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FEB |
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JAN |
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2006 |
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DEC |
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NOV |
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The US$81 million losses in
naphtha trading chalked up by
Mitsui & Co.'s Singapore unit.
A trader at the unit Mitsui Oil (Asia) had covered
up losses in physical and futures naphtha trading by
falsifying the value of the positions.
Investigations are still ongoing, but the covered-up
losses are unlikely to escalate, a Mitsui spokesman
said earlier this week.
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AUG |
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JUNE |
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Several new projects for
pipelines supplying Las Vegas could change that
market in a few years .
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Chevron to acquire 122 USA stations in
California that it will now upgrade and rebrand to
either the Chevron or Texaco flag.
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The California Independent Oil
Marketers Association (CIOMA) advised that state
pipelines would be shut down as a result of
mandatory power curtailments issued by Pacific
Gas & Electric and by Southern California Edison.
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Two employees, indicted in a
scheme to steal $4 million worth of fuel from the
KM Seattle terminal, will face sentencing next
month.
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Valero Energy will divest any interest it has in
its master limited partnership that operates some
9,243 miles of pipelines, 88 terminals and 77
million bbl of storage. -
By next summer
new domestic isooctane and isooctene units
could account for some 50,000 b/d of gasoline
additive production.
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Privately-owned U.S. agriculture
company
Cargill is expanding its worldwide ethanol footprint,
announcing Monday it is taking a majority stake in
Cevasa, a sugar and ethanol plant in Sao Paulo,
Brazil.
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Plains All American Pipeline announced that is
has executed an agreement to purchase Long Beach,
California based Pacific Energy Partners for $2.4
billion.
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ExxonMobil will provide the fuel that will in turn
be furnished by super jobber Tower Energy to
hundreds of 7-Eleven stores north of Florida.
Tower already supplies 7-Eleven on the West Coast
and is one of a number of large jobbers that
ExxonMobil has offered to "back up" with unbranded
product at favorable spot prices.
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MAY |
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Maersk
Lines this morning announced a pilot program to
use low-sulfur fuel in both the main and auxiliary
engines of its vessels calling at California ports.
The company’s announcement came during a press
conference at its Pier 400 terminal in Los Angeles.
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Kinder
Morgan has told carriers and drivers that pull from KM
racks that they are responsible if ultra-low-sulfur
diesel is
tainted during loading.
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The EPA
has reached an agreement with Valero that calls for
the refiner to install $700 million worth of upgrades
to its pollution control systems at its refineries
nationwide and for
Valero to pay a $5.5 million fine for federal air
pollution law violations.
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Marketers
were no less than enthralled with Governor Linda
Lingle's recent decision to
suspend the gas price cap law in Hawaii. The law
caused nothing but tumult in the short, eight months
it was in play, some claim.
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Retail
giant
Wal-Mart (E85) will
experiment with offering high-ethanol-blend fuel E85
at some of the retail gasoline stations located in
the parking lots of many of the company's huge
discount stores.
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Approved
last week with a final vote by
Long Beach harbor commissioners set for today, the
landmark lease renewal with SSA Terminals obligates
the terminal operator, the carrier and the port to
team up on clean air measures aimed at reducing air
pollutants by 90 percent over the next decade.
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Recognizing that U.S. ethanol producers will hit their
current renewable fuels standard (RFS) target of 7.5
billion gallons well before 2012, at least one ethanol
trade association is now coming out swinging,
advocating a
12 billion gallon RFS for the same timeframe.
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The
price of crude oil is likely to drop sharply beginning
next year and settle at about $40/bbl by 2011 as
non-petroleum investors exit the market, said Tesoro
Senior VP and Chief Economist Lynn Westfall.
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With publication in the Federal
Register, U.S.
EPA officially lifted the 2% oxygenate requirement
on Monday, enacting a provision in the 2005 energy
bill aimed at granting refiner flexibility. -
To further
help the U.S. transition from oil to
biofuels-based economy, U.S. Rep. Marion Berry
(D-Ark.) introduced a bill earlier this week requiring
10% of the transportation pool to contain biofuels by
2016, and doubling the requirement by 2021.
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If everything goes as planned this
June, U.S. ethanol plants will likely have to comply
with a
4ppm ethanol sulfate spec before the end of the
year, according to sources familiar with ASTM.
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While most of the U.S. will employ federal
ultra-low-sulfur diesel regs June 1, California
will live up to its reputation as an "island" state
with its own fuel regs. An advisory issued by state
marketer group CIOMA tells marketers to ignore federal
regs and heed only state regs. -
Alon USA to purchase Paramount Refining (54mbpd),
including the old Chevron asphalt refinery in
Portland, and
Edgington Oil (24mbpd) which will more than double its output
to 160,000 b/d of capacity.
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APRIL |
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Homeland Security Chief Michael
Chertoff announced today that the federal government
will begin conducting
name-based background checks on nearly 400,000
port workers in the U.S. -
Public companies might wish they
could keep their 2006 retail gasoline margins private
since the steady march higher in wholesale prices has
punished high volume retailers. Numbers compiled by
OPIS Retail Fuel Watch for the first 100 days point to
a
harsh slump in margins. -
The Energy
Policy Act of 2005 did not provide a "safe harbor"
from MTBE defective product liability lawsuits, and as
a result, gasoline suppliers are phasing out the
oxygenate so fast that observers are wondering whether
there will be
enough ethanol to substitute. -
The National
Petrochemical and Refiners Association (NPRA) issued a
statement this week, highlighting its concerns with
"The Oil and Gas Industry Antitrust Act of 2006,"
which calls for a provision that stipulates OPEC
nations conducting business in the United States must
abide by
U.S. antitrust laws .
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Kinder
Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. announced today that is
has entered into a consent agreement with the
U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and
Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)
that will result in $26 million in enhancements to the
company's Integrity Management Program.
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One worker died and four were
injured when a storage
tank roof collapsed on Monday at the
ConocoPhillips refinery in Wilmington as the men
installed plates on the floor of an empty, 65-foot
tank. -
An industry analyst said he expects
ethanol demand to increasingly outstrip supply
this year and only come back into balance sometime in
the latter half of 2007.
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Talk of a
mandate that would
require marketers to sell E85, a blend of 15%
gasoline and 85% ethanol, is raising concern among
marketers, given current prices for the alcohol
additive and the tight supply situation.
-
Original estimates to
cold iron ships at BP's Berth 121 in Long Beach
were grossly under estimated for both the ships and
the dock.
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MARCH |
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Cleanup crews
collected more than 12,000 gallons of red
dyed high-sulfur
diesel oil that leaked out of a pipe at an Irving
Oil pier in Revere that spilled into Chelsea River.
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Kinder
Morgan will invest $15 million to upgrade
CalNev's pipeline capacity
to about 156,000 b/d. -
Every
year,
OSHA compiles statistics on violations to its
standards. During 2005, there were 105,817 violations
to standards ranging across all industry segments
under federal OSHA jurisdiction, with adjusted
penalties of nearly $34 million.
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Leading
U.S. MTBE manufacturer Lyondell Chemical Co. is
criticizing the U.S. EPA for issuing a direct final
rule earlier this year to remove the 2% oxygenate
requirement, warning "there are real-world
consequences of
abruptly removing the oxygen content requirement
during the high volatility summer driving season." -
United
States refiners and blenders are not considering the
use of
ethyl tertiary butyl ether (ETBE) despite the
growing acceptance of the octane booster use in Europe
and Asia, industry sources said. -
The California State Lands
Commission (SLC) has determined under
MOTEMS that 5 of the 33 onshore terminals in
California were found to be low-risk and in good
condition.-
EPA will allow
ULSD to test at 18ppm by the time it gets to
retail, rather than the 17ppm allowed under the
current rule. In other words, the test tolerance.
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The
Port of Long Beach to lease 11.8 acres
of property for 3 years to Shippers Transport
Express for about $70,780 per acre per year.
69,600 x 12 = 835,200
835,200 / 11.8 = 70,780
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FEBRUARY |
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MOTEMS
– the
Marine Oil Terminal Engineering and Maintenance
Standards – took effect in California on Feb.
6. The new rules, developed
by the State Lands Commission, require minimum
engineering, inspection and maintenance standards for
33 onshore oil terminals currently in operation
statewide. -
In compliance with the Energy
Policy Act of 2005 signed into law last August, EPA
issued two final rules that set the dates for
canceling the federal 2% by weight oxygenate
requirement for reformulated gasoline.
The second rule removes the 2% oxy requirement for
California which should take effect in late April. -
The
price of E85 — a fuel that's 85% ethanol made from
grain and 15% conventional gasoline — is higher than
that of gasoline, even though E85 has only 72% as much
energy. The U.S. Department of Energy says a vehicle
has to use 1.4 times as much E85 as gasoline to go the
same distance.
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Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.), Inc.
(Mitsui USA) and Royal Vopak (Vopak)
announced today their intention to merge their
complementary tank terminal activities in the United
States and Canada in a new Joint Venture, to be named
Vopak ITC. Mitsui USA and Vopak will participate on a
50%/50% basis.
-
Astra will buy the U.S. Oil & Refining refinery in
Tacoma after outbidding a number of private equity
groups for the 38,000 b/d facility. -
ExxonMobil has surpassed BP as the major refiner
that is most aggressively seeking to sell fuel to
hypermarts -
Kinder Morgan said that it plans to
invest close to $10 million in new construction and
upgrades in two projects to expand the Kinder Morgan
CALNEV system. -
According
to Fortune magazine's Nelson Schwartz, two of the
world's most successful investors say oil will be in
short supply in the coming months.
One of them, Hermitage Capital's Bill Browder, has
outlined six scenarios that could take oil up to a
downright terrifying
$262 a barrel.
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Marketers
looking to buy into a successful C-store operation may
find
BP's "Connect" franchise with its "Wild Bean Cafe"
a perfect fit, but they'll need a stiff upper lip when
it comes to the costs involved.
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JANUARY |
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The Los
Angeles Harbor Board has scored a "gigantic
breakthrough" in controlling emissions from ships by
getting P&O Nedlloyd to agree to
burn low-sulfur fuel in their ships’ main engines
as a condition of getting a terminal lease.
-
ExxonMobil
isn't bullish on
refining margins. Quite the contrary. The major
expects the current refining margins to fade and for
domestic refining capacity to exceed demand in as
little as 10 to 15 years. -
Gasoline demand grew by just 0.4% for the year,
averaging 9.145 million b/d. Gasoline demand growth
over the prior three years had averaged nearly 2%. -
If you need
ethanol to manufacture reformulated gasoline (RFG)
this spring, it will cost as many as $2.50. -
Pacific Energy Partners LP (PEP) has launched a
campaign to get some backing for a proposed deepwater
marine terminal that could supplement Southern
California petroleum supply. -
U.S.
government energy analysts have joined the chorus of
those who anticipate
short supply of ethanol for fuel markets through
at least the first half of 2006 as refiners gear up to
meet the new federal renewable fuels standard and
increasingly phase out the use of MTBE.
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2005 |
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DECEMBER |
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EPA has
amended a rule to
exempt California refiners, importers, and
blenders from meeting the federal RFG standards.
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Shell will sell total 950 sites in 16 markets
moving 1.5 billion gals/yr of gasoline and diesel.
About 50% of the outlets are former Texaco sites
converted to Shell. When all the sales are completed,
Shell will be left with approximately 2,000 direct
sites, 20% to 30% of which will be MSO units. -
Mexico imports 200,000 b/d of gasoline and
is expected to buy about 60% or 120,000 b/d of its
monthly requirements from the U.S., up from about 50%. -
By 2007,
Shell will sell a total 950 stations moving 1.5
billion gals/yr of gasoline and diesel to jobbers. The
sites will be offered through an open bid process and
jobbers must commit to maintain the Shell brand at the
outlets for 10 years. -
The CEC
said in its "2005 Integrated Energy Policy Report."
that California should establish a
minimum 10% renewable average content standard for the
pool of gasoline sold in California. The CEC
also recommended a diesel fuel standard that would
require minimum 5% non-petroleum content blending,
likely primarily biodiesel, but would also include
ethanol-blended E-diesel or gas-to-liquid components.
-
Vitol is
putting its
Come-by-Chance New Foundland refinery on the sales
block. Vitol sought to buy the U.S. Oil plant in
Tacoma, Washington as recently as last month. -
BP could spin off a chunk of its
West Coast company owned
AM/PM C-stores to franchisees by the New Year,
OPIS has learned. The sale of 34 stores in Arizona,
nine in Las Vegas, and seven in Northern California,
to franchisees, could close this month, said sources
familiar with the deals. -
Refiners
told the CEC that they have no
plans to increase or decrease ethanol due to the
fact that they have existing contract volumes already
in place. Nearly 87% of the ethanol used in California
is bought on contracts. Also a logistical issue
brought up by refiners is that they do not have the
adequate capabilities to segregate multiple types of
gasoline that have various concentrations of ethanol.
-
The
37,000 b/d U.S. Oil & Refining complex in Tacoma,
Washington is currently in the semifinal round of
bidding. The refinery is not a sophisticated plant - -
it makes considerable bottom-of-the-barrel products
like asphalt and residual fuel. So, in order to make a
substantial cut of clean gasoline, a would-be buyer
would have to spend well in excess of $100-million for
new hydrocracking, experts say. -
BP
Products North America Inc. has said that it will
spend $1 billion to modernize and maintain its
460,000 b/d
Texas City refinery and that it is implementing
the recommendations of the incident investigation team
in the wake of the massive and deadly March 23, 2005
explosion.
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NOVEMBER |
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In the
Pacific Northwest,
ConPhil's is adding a new 25,000 b/d coker to run
Canadian crude at its 97,385 b/d Ferndale, Wash.,
refinery.
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Pacific Energy Partners and ConocoPhillips
have signed a long-term terminal
services deal for Pacific Energy's
Pier 400 deep-water marine terminal project in the
Port of Los Angeles for 20 years with an option
for an additional 10 years in which ConocoPhillips
agreed to provide a minimum throughput of 90,000 b/d
of crude and other feedstocks.
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The
proposed
Arizona Clean Fuels refinery has reached an
understanding with the Secretariat of Energy of Mexico
confirming that the company may carry out the
construction, operation and maintenance, and ownership
of a pipeline that will deliver Mexican crude to the
proposed Yuma plant. -
Montana Refining has been slapped with a $140,000
fine by the Montana Department of Environmental
Quality for releases at its 9,000 b/d Great Falls
refinery. According to state documents, the company
continued to load gasoline to trucks in October 2003
when its vapor recovery equipment was out of service,
resulting in emissions. -
A
gasoline price probe by the California Energy
Commission cited four reasons why consumers in the
state paid more than $3/gal for gasoline after two
deadly hurricanes struck the Gulf Coast.
-
Phil
Verleger has some advice for ExxonMobil CEO Lee
Raymond and his oil giant colleagues. Come up with a
plan to return some of your profits to consumers or
Congress may well do it for you. -
Less than a
year after buying
Crown's Pasadena, Texas refinery, Astra Oil has
inked a deal with Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras), the
state-owned oil monopoly of Brazil, for the two
companies to combine forces to establish a joint
venture trading and refining company in the U.S. The
joint venture will operate and manage the Pasadena
refinery and commercially trade and resell finished
products produced at the 100,000 b/d facility.
-
BP President Ross Pilari
told legislators that
BP would look at expanding output at its Cherry Point
refinery in Bellingham, Wash., if the Congress
repealed a law that limits marine development of crude
facilities in the Puget Sound and limits gasoline
exports from the 232,000 b/d facilities to neighboring
states.
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OCTOBER |
-
ARCO Terminal Services will spend
nearly $1 million to resolve air pollution violations
at the Port of Long Beach in California, where
ATSC owns and operates a marine loading facility. -
The
country's top five petroleum conglomerates recorded
profits of over $30 billion profits, resulting in call
by Congress for a
gasoline reserve. -
Wal-Mart said that it will open anywhere from 335
to 370 new stores in the U.S. alone, many with
gasoline dispensing equipment. -
The
Arizona Department of Weights and Measures cited
Southwest Petroleum Trading in connection with 592
violations of state regs governing fuel quality from
its
Parker AZ transmix facility. -
ATSC will pay a $225,000 fine and spend
$675,000 for new pollution-control equipment under a
settlement that federal officials announced Tuesday. -
Economides, a professor of
engineering at the University of Houston, acknowledged
that stringent environmental regulations and difficult
permitting processes - things addressed in the
refinery bill - are among the reasons that a new
refinery hasn't been built in the United States since
1976.
-
A A large
Jiffy lube franchisee has acquired
Berry-Hinckley Industries, Nevada's largest
petroleum supplier.
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SEPTEMBER |
-
The
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) has fined BP Products North America $21 million
for the explosion that killed 15 on March 23, 2005 at
the company's 460,000 b/d Texas City refinery.
-
Motiva Enterprises LLC has agreed to pay $12 million
to settle a joint federal-state civil lawsuit
arising from a 2001 explosion at the company's former
Delaware City refinery that killed one employee,
injured several others, and caused a massive discharge
of spent sulfuric acid from a ruptured tank, the
Justice Department, the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) and the state of Delaware announced
today.
-
Unleaded at the Gulf Coast is soaring amid heavy
refiner buying this morning as refiners prepare for a
category 4 or 5 storm hitting Houston and its
environs. Total refining capacity in the current
predicted strike zone of Houston south to Sweeny is
nearly 2.4 million b/d.
-
As the
largest refiner in North America,
Valero Energy (interview with Greehey) was at big
risk when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. The
company came through relatively unscathed and had to
shut down only one of its eight refineries.
-
South
Korean refiners S-Oil and GS-Caltex will deliver two
cargoes of 92-octane gasoline for delivery to the
U.S. in mid to late October, traders said.
-
Magellan Midstream Partners is paying $55-million or
$37 per barrel for a products' terminal in Wilmington, Delaware.
-
Hurricane
Katrina will effect the production of CARB gasoline
since refineries depend on alkylate and blending
components from the GC. CARB will review an RVP
waiver.
-
In what the oil community is calling "huge"
development for getting Gulf Coast refined products
moved to other U.S. markets,
President Bush has temporarily waived the Jones Act,
allowing foreign-flagged tankers to carry oil between
U.S. ports.
-
Against
the back drop of $70 bbl crude, and $3.00 gal spot
gasoline, Valero this morning closed on its
acquisition of Premcor, creating a company with 18
refineries, representing about 3.3-million b/d of
output.
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AUGUST |
-
Downtime on the
KM West Line and
the KM East Line have caused
supply tightening in Phoenix, AZ
which will result in continuing prorating of
the West Line. -
Kinder Morgan
announced that it has received a Corrective Action
Order from the U.S. Department of Transportation's
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
(PHMSA) and states that Kinder Morgan had 14 pipeline
incidents of greater then 5 barrels since January 1st
2003.
-
The New York Mercantile Exchange will introduce an
RBOB contract next year due to refiners announcing
the discontinuation of MTBE due to lawsuits.
Some experts believe that with the conversion to ULSD,
the amount of transmix generated at terminals will
more than double.
With the recent approval of the Energy Bill that
rescinds the 2% oxy mandate, Valero has hinted that it
will move away from oxy fuels. This will reduce
Valero's production of gasoli9ne in the U.S. by 60,000
barrels per day. If other refiners react
similarly, total U.S. production would be reduced by
250,000 barrels per day.
Non oxy fuels will become the norm in the Gulf Coast
but remain in California and New York due to existing
infrastructure for ethanol.
Hawaii is weeks away from employing the
first gas price cap law in the nation.
"Al Qaeda leaders plan to employ
various types of
fuel trucks as vehicle borne improvised explosive
devices in an effort to cause mass casualties in
the U.S. (and London) prior to September 19."
The Environmental Protection Agency
has decided to
retain the existing standards that limit emissions
of toxic air pollutants from gasoline distribution
terminals and pipeline breakout stations.
Kinder
Morgan announced an
East Line Expansion Plan to replace 140 miles of
12-inch and 16-inch pipe from Texas to Arizona at a
cost of $340 million.
|
|
JULY |
-
The
Senate today gave its nod to a massive energy bill,
approved by the House yesterday, calling for a flood
of 7.5 billion gal/yr in renewable fuels in U.S.
markets by 2012 and
eliminate the oxygenate mandate in California. -
U.S. Oil & Refining is selling its assets,
including a 37,000-b/d refinery in the Pacific
Northwest, a pipeline, a dock and a loading rack.
-
The
U.S. House-Senate conference committee will mandate at
least
7.5 billion gal/yr of renewables
- mostly
ethanol -- in the nation's fuel supply by 2012.
Kinder Morgan to purchase
ExxonMobil's
Staten Island 2.3 million barrel refined products
terminal for $48 million or $20 per barrel.
TransMontaigne paid $40 million
in cash Radcliffe/Economy Marine Services,
which operates two waterborne terminals in Mobile,
Alabama and one in Pensacola, Fla. with a combined
storage capacity of about 350,000 barrels. ($114
per barrels)
Valero LP
has struck a deal to spin off some
Kaneb facilities to Pacific Energy Partners LP.
Pacific will pay approximately $455 million for two
California crude oil and refined products terminals;
three East Coast refined products terminals, and a
550-mile products pipeline with four truck terminals
and storage in the Rocky Mountains.
Cargill entered
a partnership that the company said will bring a spate
of construction over the next couple years and some
300 million gal/yr in new ethanol output.
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|
JUNE |
BP (hypermarket expansion) will once again
be the largest gasoline supplier to Big Box chain
Costco, which moves 1.2 billion gals/yr.
EPA ordered California, New York
and Connecticut to
continue using oxygenates in
RFG today, rejecting their petitions for waivers,
|
|
MAY |
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EPA says it will issue a
new ULSD rule later this year to shift the retail
compliance date from Sept. 1 to Oct. 15, 2006, to allow
more time for terminals and retail outlets to comply
with the 15 ppm ULSD standard.
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Valero L.P. will sell some West Coast terminals in
order to get regulatory clearance for its $2.8-billion
acquisition of Kaneb Services and Kaneb Pipeline
Partners.
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The Federal
Trade Commission says it has found no evidence that
Shell was trying to manipulate the marketplace when
it decided to shutter its Bakersfield, Calif., refinery.
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Even if high
oil prices ease, prospects for cheaper gasoline, diesel
and jet fuel are likely to be limited for at least
several years by a growing global problem: a severe
crunch in refining capacity.
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BP has
issued a statement saying a "series of failures by BP
personnel" during the startup of the isom unit at the
Texas City refinery
caused the deadly explosion and fire that killed 15
workers and injured more than 170.
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APRIL |
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Bush
proposes building
new refineries on military bases to increase supply
of oil. Huh?
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The U.S.
House approved an Energy Bill which includes caps on the
number of boutique fuels, allows commingling of
oxygenated fuels, limits MTBE defective product
liability, and allows drilling in ANWR.
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A bipartisan
coalition of U.S. House members introduced the Fuels
Security Act of 2005 which includes a Renewable Fuels
Standard that would mandate ethanol consumption of 4
billion gallons in 2006 to 8 billion gallons in 2012.
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Valero
announces plan to purchase Premcor for 8$ billion to
create largest refiner in U.S. and increase capacity
without actually increasing industry capacity.
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Costco
experiencing inverted gasoline margins at retail
outlets as majors exercise price increase constraint and
financial institutions distort traditional petroleum
market conditions.
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ChevronTexaco
increases oil oil & gas
reserves by agreeing to purchase Unocal for $18 billion.
(A lot less risk than actually drilling for oil.
Score another one for Big Oil and the FTC.)
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MAR. |
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The
Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical & Energy Workers
International Union
(PACE) representing 30,000 workers in refineries,
chemical plants and related businesses approved a plan
Monday to extend the workers' contract until Feb. 1,
2009.
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Marketers that fail to install Phase I
vapor recovery equipment at
California stations by April
1 are given a temporary reprieve
for effort to comply.
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Sam's Club
has been quietly transitioning from jobber delivered
fuel to handling fuel procurement on a FOB refinery
basis.
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In three years
Costco
has more than tripled its Phoenix
volumes, by adding just three sites. It has just seven
sites in the county, with an average monthly sales
volume of 715,000 gal per station.
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Pacific
Pipeline
Line 63 washed out in Grapevine, north of Los
Angeles, and spilled 3,000 barrels of crude into Pyramid
Lake which supplies water to L.A..
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The
U.S. EPA gave its stamp of approval for
the air quality permit an Arizona Refinery, the first
ground-up oil refinery to be built in the U.S. in nearly
30 years.
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Kinder Morgan
warns refiners and shippers to not make any business
decisions based on their East Line expansion plans.
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A
federal agency assembled a task force to examine how
pipeline
company
Kinder Morgan Inc.
(KMI) inspects its lines.
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BP receives endorsement for
its gasoline from Ford.
BP has steadfastly refused to apply for GM's "Top Tier"
recognition, telling marketers last year that
"over-dosing detergent additives to solve vehicle
hardware design issues" is "neither a correct nor an
efficient approach" to serving customer needs.
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The South Coast Air
Quality Management District on Wednesday won a record
$81-million settlement
with energy giant
BP, which regulators accused of illegally spewing
toxic gases from its Carson refinery for nearly a
decade.
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Motiva has agreed to pay a $10 million fine to the
negligent death of a worker in a
tank explosion
at its Delaware City, Del., refinery.
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Walmart announces development of 200+ Wal-mart
stations to start up in 2005.
Benchmark Resources,
a wholly owned subsidiary will purchase the fuel from
numerous refiners and wholesales.
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Flying J will take over operations at the
Shell Bakersfield refinery
in mid March.
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FEB. |
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Longhorn Pipeline
announces delivery of product to
El Paso
market which may ultimately reduce demand from
California refineries.
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Kinder Morgan
announces expansion plan for
East Line System
to be completed in first quarter 2006 which will
increase capacity from Tucson to Phoenix by 80% to
45,000 BPD. Capacity from El Paso to Tucson will
increase 60% or about 54,000 BPD.
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Kinder Morgan
receives permits to
construct 10 tanks
(800 MB) at its Carson terminal for $40 million.
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Paramount Petroleum
announced tha |