Gasoline
Risk: Measuring margins—Avoiding complacency when the market is stable
When top oil marketer Geneva Energy Markets LLC liquidated its trading book holding<sup>1</sup> “millions of barrels of open interest across crude oil, refined products and natural gas,” managing partner Mark Vonderheide emphasized the pressures and potential damage of new market regulations.
Industry Perspectives: Refining’s real growth is through secondary unit capacity
According to multiple industry reports, the global refining sector will add between 7 MMbpd and 8 MMbpd of new crude distillation unit (CDU) capacity by the early 2020s.
Industry Metrics
US margins recorded losses as crack spreads declined for all products except fuel oil, despite lower refinery crude intakes.
Refining: Chinese refining industry eyes production cuts, consolidation
The Chinese refining industry is on the verge of massive production cuts and consolidation. A new tax rule aimed at curbing alleged tax evasion by independents and the end of an era of liberalization in the industry are driving the downsizing.
Corrosion impact of the mixture of butanol-blended gasoline
The role of octane boosters on the corrosivity of petroleum products for gasoline/diesel engines has attracted more attention in the auto fuel market due to the depletion of fossil fuels in the world’s feedstock.
Technical considerations for the Heydar Aliyev refinery revamp
The following case study describes the early development phases of SOCAR’s ongoing major revamp project at the Heydar Aliyev Refinery (HAR) in Baku, Azerbaijan, and its interface with the associated Azerikimya (AZK) steam cracking complex near Sumgait. References are made to the related SOCAR polymer project in Sumgayit, as well.
Industry Metrics
With the exception of fuel oil, US product markets showed losses against pressure from across the barrel and high crude oil prices.
Hydrocarbon Processing Awards
<i>Hydrocarbon Processing</i>, the downstream processing sector’s leading technical publication, has announced the finalists for its second annual awards.
Better practices for tank overfill prevention
The 2005 Buncefield and 2009 CAPECO terminal explosions are two of the most significant storage tank incidents in history.

- Sumitomo Chemical achieves scale-up of its process for producing propylene directly from ethanol 8/20
- EcoCortec, Jakob Schober GmbH awarded sustainability award for closed-loop circular films solution 8/20
- Addverb reinvents its factory automation development with Siemens Xcelerator 8/20
- Sanctions-hit Indian refiner Nayara turns to ‘dark fleet’ 8/20
- EIA: Crude and gasoline inventories fall, distillates rise 8/20
- Czech refinery outage forces Orlen Unipetrol to seek state help to meet diesel demand 8/20