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Crude oil

Russia's September western port oil loadings to rise 1.5% m/m despite seasonal refinery maintenance

Russia will increase oil exports via its western ports to 1.98 MMbpd in September, up by just 30,000 bpd from August, despite the expected start of seasonal maintenance on Russian refineries.

Transition to cleaner fuels seen dragging on China's oil demand growth

China's shift towards lower-carbon fuels and a sluggish economy are dampening oil demand growth in the world's largest crude importer.

Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion pushes rivals to cut rates, for now

Pipelines that historically carry Canadian crude to the U.S. are cutting rates and looking to ship different grades of crude oil due to rising competition from the newly expanded Trans Mountain pipeline.

India's Bharat Petroleum Corp. to boost integrated refining-petrochemical capacity by 2030

India's Bharat Petroleum Corp plans to increase its integrated refining and petrochemical capacities within the next 5 yr-7yr to meet growing energy demand. India's annual consumption of refined fuels and petrochemicals is expected to rise steadily by 4%-5% and 7%-8% in the 'foreseeable future'.

Asia 10-ppm gasoil refining margins near 18-month low on clouded outlook

Asia's 10-ppm sulfur gasoil refining margins have slumped to a near 18-month low amid mixed market outlooks as well as softer ICE gasoil futures and prompt paper swaps.

U.S. crude, gasoline stockpiles fall on stronger demand

U.S. crude oil and gasoline inventories fell last week as demand picked up ahead of Labor Day weekend and the end of the summer driving season.

The attractive market opportunity for synthetic graphite: Graphite as an energy transition material (4)

Chevron Lummus Global: Antoniou, M.  |  Manral, V.  |  Magdoza, K.
Evalueserve: Suri, V.

Given the attractive demand projection, investors must understand the benefits and return on investment for natural and synthetic graphite routes. This article establishes the pros and cons for each, and specifically highlights the emerging opportunity for upgrading and repurposing smaller petcoke units to needle coke units, therefore contributing to fulfilling the rising demand for synthetic graphite.

Utilize a hydrogen reactions lab to optimize renewable fuels processing

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.: Lebrecht, T.  |  Duhamel, D.

Leading technology developers in the refining space are utilizing various catalysts to enhance the adjusted reaction chemistry, but this does not directly address how to optimize hydrogen utilization for the hydrodeoxygenation and isomerization/cracking processing steps. To ensure the right equipment outlay and calibration for these hydrogenation applications, replicating the process in a lab setting can help identify efficiencies and yield improvements for a fraction of the cost that a refiner would incur attempting to achieve that optimization through modifications at commercial scale. 

Meet gasoline quality and process safety requirements through new alkylation technologies

Petrobras: Da Silva, M. W.

The catalytic alkylation process is very attractive to countries with high gasoline consumption and a sizable availability of LPG. This process can produce high-octane gasoline with low levels of contaminants, although there are high capital investment and operational costs associated with this technology.  

Mexico's new Pemex refinery processes 65,000 bpd of crude in July but no gasoline

Mexican state oil firm Pemex's newest refinery processed some 65,046 bpd of crude oil in July, its first month of operations after multiple delays, and just over 30,000 bpd of diesel and coke.