Refining

Refiners on the Gulf Coast are shunning crude oil cargos from Mexico that feature an excessively high water content that makes the feedstock unfit for the production of gasoline and diesel fuel, Bloomberg has reported. Instead, refiners are buying more Colombian and Canadian crude, or asking for discounts on the …

China’s independent refiners have slashed their processing rates to the lowest level in nearly five years as costs to procure crude soared amid dwindling Russian supply following the latest U.S. sanctions. Crude supply became more expensive for the private Chinese refiners, concentrated in the Shandong province, and dragged refining margins …

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec, saw its refinery throughput drop by 2.03% in 2024 from a year earlier, the biggest Chinese refiner said on Friday. Sinopec’s refinery throughput fell to 252.3 million tons last year, amid an overall decline in Chinese crude processing rates, for the first time …

For much of the past year, oil traders were desperate to find a bullish thesis. Now, in the span of just a few weeks, they have two. On one hand, amid mounting fears of a supply and inventory glut, Biden’s parting gift of accelerated sanctions against Russian oil exporters and …

Weaker fuel demand and depressed refining margins in 2024 resulted in the first annual decline in China’s refinery throughput in over 20 years, excluding the pandemic lockdown year of 2022, government data showed on Friday. Chinese refiners processed on average 14.13 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil last …

Indian refiners expect their supply of cheaper Russian crude to be severely crippled with imminent U.S. sanctions expected to be slapped on tankers transporting Russia’s oil, refining sources in India told Reuters on Friday. Indian refiners understand that the outgoing Biden Administration is set to target in a new sanctions …

Kazakhstan’s state-owned oil and gas company KazMunayGas has reportedly offered $1 billion to buy Lukoil Neftochim Burgas, Bulgaria’s only refinery currently owned by Russia’s Lukoil. The Burgas refinery already receives about 40% of its supplies from KazMunayGas, and the acquisition would strengthen the Kazakh company’s position in the European market. …

Shell has shut down one of its oil processing units at its refinery complex in Singapore to investigate a suspected leak in the system, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said on Friday. The Shell Energy and Chemicals Park at Pulau Bukom, Singapore, is the supermajor’s only energy …

India’s second-largest fuel retailer, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), plans to raise its refining capacity by 10 million tons per year by 2028, as the biggest Indian refiners consider a massive expansion to processing capacity to meet growing demand. State-controlled BPCL expects to raise its total refining capacity to 45 …

China, the world’s heavyweight oil consumer, has officially hit its peak. According to CNPC’s Economics & Technology Research Institute, the country’s refined oil consumption maxed out in 2023 at 399 million metric tons (roughly 8 million barrels per day) and is set to decline by 1.3% in 2024. For an …