From time to time I look at the EIA website, mostly out of curiosity. The US Energy Information Agency publishes the US statistics on oil related matters every Wednesday.
The EIA's weekly supply estimates have in their right columns the links to graphs, showing historic trends to 2011 for specific products and groups. The ones I find of interest are the trends for crude oil refinery inputs, gasoline, distillate fuels and residual fuels. What these graphs indicate to me is that refinery yields have increased over the years. US refiners are producing more refined product from lower feedstock quantities, thereby leaving less residual oil for marine fuel blending. The EIA figures suggest that US refineries produce a lower percentage of residual oil than others.
If we take the US refining trend towards higher refinery yields as indicative for how global refining evolves, then it is reasonable to project that somewhere down the line there won't be enough residual fuel to satisfy the demand for industrial and marine fuel.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment