Nearly half—48%—of rail tank cars carrying Class 3 flammable liquids in 2019 in the US met the new safety requirements, up from 33% in 2018, according to Fleet Composition of Rail Tank Cars Carrying Flammable Liquids: 2020 Report released today by the US Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics.... Read more →

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is denying petitions for small refinery exemptions for past compliance years, the so-called “gap-filling” petitions for the 2011-18 compliance years. In total, the agency had received 68 retroactive exemption requests from petroleum refiners seeking to skirt obligations under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS); the... Read more →

Italy-based Snam, a leading energy infrastructure operator, and Saipem, an Italian multinational oilfield services company, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to start working together to define and to develop initiatives for green hydrogen production and transport, and for carbon dioxide capture, transport and reuse or storage (CCS and CCU).... Read more →

by Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com. Big Oil has frequently been chided for merely trying to burnish its green credentials, and so far, it has done little to convince us that it is truly moving forward to greenness. Despite the much-vaunted megatrend involving the global electrification drive and shift to renewable... Read more →

Diakont is part of a team that was awarded $5 million in funding from the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) Rapid Encapsulation of Pipelines Avoiding Intensive Replacement (REPAIR) program (earlier post) to develop new technologies for rehabilitating legacy cast iron and bare steel natural gas distribution... Read more →

Phillips 66, a diversified energy manufacturing and logistics company, plans to reconfigure its San Francisco Refinery in Rodeo, California, to produce renewable fuels. The plant would no longer produce fuels from crude oil, but instead would make fuels from used cooking oil, fats, greases and soybean oils. The Phillips 66... Read more →

Oil markets have returned to relatively stable ground with Brent prices within a narrow $40-$45 per barrel range and could conclusively pass the $50 per barrel mark in the second half of 2021, according to Roger Diwan and the IHS Markit Energy Advisory Service. The IHS Markit Brent price outlook... Read more →

Researchers from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel have found that considerable quantities of the greenhouse gas methane escape uncontrolled into the water from abandoned oil and gas wells in the North Sea. The work, published in the International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, confirms earlier studies based... Read more →

Scientists from ExxonMobil, the Georgia Institute of Technology and Imperial College of London have published in the journal Science joint research on potential breakthroughs in a new membrane technology that could reduce emissions and energy intensity associated with refining crude oil. Laboratory tests indicate the patent-pending membrane could be used... Read more →

When processing petroleum, refineries can produce products in varying amounts to meet regional demands. The International Energy Agency’s Monthly Oil Statistics shows that there are differences in refinery output throughout the world. In the Americas, gasoline accounted for just above 40% of the products refined from petroleum in 2019, while... Read more →

Total US petroleum exports have been increasing over the last 10 years, reaching an all-time high of 8.5 million barrels per day (mmbd) in 2019. The United States exported 1.2 mmbd of petroleum to Mexico in 2019, which was 14% of total US petroleum exports, according to the US Energy... Read more →

Pursuant to section 95489(c)(3)(B) of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) Regulation, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) Executive Officer has posted the final 2017 Crude Average Carbon Intensity calculation: 12.52 CI (gCO2e/MJ). The 2019 CI is up from 2018 (12.35) and from 2017 (11.93); volume delivered to California refineries... Read more →

A Northwestern Engineering-led team has developed a highly porous smart sponge that selectively soaks up oil in water. With an ability to absorb more than 30 times its weight in oil, the sponge could be used to clean up oil spills inexpensively and efficiently without harming marine life. After squeezing... Read more →

Due to the collapse in oil prices, IHS Markit expects US producers are in the process of curtailing about 1.75 million barrels per day (MMb/d) of existing production by early June due to operating cash losses, lack of demand and storage capacity, and an unwillingness to sell resources at the... Read more →

Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc., through a subsidiary, has purchased Alon Bakersfield Properties, Inc., a subsidiary of Delek US Holdings, Inc. and the owner of the Alon Bakersfield Refinery. The total cash consideration paid to Delek US Holdings for the purchase was $40 million. Alon Bakersfield Refinery is an existing... Read more →

The second quarter of 2020 will see the largest volume of liquids production cuts, including shut-in production, in the history of the oil industry, according to IHS Markit. IHS Markit now expects much as 17 MMb/d total liquids output (which includes nearly 14 MMb/d of crude oil production) to be... Read more →

Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) released a new report “Legal Grounds: Law and Policy Options to Facilitate a Phase-Out of Fossil Fuel Production in California.” The report analyzes steps California leaders could pursue on state- and privately-owned lands to achieve this reduction. California is the... Read more →

OPEC-Plus, a group of 23 oil-producing countries that includes Russia, agreed on Sunday to reduce output by 9.7 million barrels per day for May and June. The agreement also calls for OPEC-Plus members to keep oil production reduced from the current level by 6 million barrels per day through April... Read more →

The trajectory of North American gas supply is set to change radically as a result of the fall in oil prices that has occurred due to COVID-19 and the breakdown in production cooperation between OPEC and Russia, according to IHS Markit. Prior to the global pandemic, languishing North America gas... Read more →

IHS Markit Crude Oil Markets service expects up to 10 MMb/d of world oil production will be cut or shut-in from April to June 2020 as oil storage fills up and output from financially strapped companies begins to fall. If oil cannot be sold or stored, it cannot be produced.... Read more →

Brazil-based oil company Petrobras will direct part of the processing capacity of its high-performance computers (HPC) to contribute to the Folding@home Project effort on studying the coronavirus behavior in the human body and how the disease progresses, from the interaction of viral proteins, making way for for the development of... Read more →

BASF launched Fourtune—a new Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) catalyst product for gasoil feedstock. Fourtune is the latest product based on BASF’s Multiple Framework Topology (MFT) technology. It has been optimized to deliver superior butylene over propylene selectivity while maintaining catalyst activity and performance. MFT technology decouples catalyst acid site density... Read more →

ExxonMobil is looking to reduce spending significantly as a result of market conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and commodity price decreases. Based on this unprecedented environment, we are evaluating all appropriate steps to significantly reduce capital and operating expenses in the near term. We will outline plans when they... Read more →

Global oil demand is expected to decline in 2020 as the impact of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) spreads around the world, constricting travel and broader economic activity, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA’s) latest oil market forecast. The situation remains fluid, creating an extraordinary degree of uncertainty over what... Read more →

The majority (69%) of primary energy imported into the United States in 2018 was crude oil, with petroleum products and natural gas also having significant shares, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Small amounts of biofuels, electricity, and coal were also imported. Exports of primary energy from the... Read more →

In 1982 there were over 250 operating crude oil refineries in the United States; that number declined to 132 by 2019, according to data from the US Department of Energy (DOE). Meanwhile, the total distillation capacity of all refineries combined increased from a low of 14.4 million barrels per calendar... Read more →

ExxonMobil announced an oil discovery offshore Guyana at the Mako-1 well southeast of the Liza field, marking the 15th discovery on the Stabroek Block. Mako-1 encountered approximately 164 feet (50 meters) of a high-quality oil bearing sandstone reservoir. Mako-1, drilled in 5,315 feet (1,620 meters) of water, is located approximately... Read more →

ExxonMobil has started oil production from the Liza field offshore Guyana ahead of schedule and less than five years after the first discovery of hydrocarbons, which is well ahead of the industry average for deepwater developments. The Liza Phase 1 development is approximately 190 kilometers offshore in water depths of... Read more →

Chevron Corporation has sanctioned the Anchor project in the US Gulf of Mexico (GOM). This marks the industry’s first deepwater high-pressure development to achieve a final investment decision. Delivery of the new technology, which is capable of handling pressures of 20,000 psi, also enables access to other high-pressure resource opportunities... Read more →

Annual petroleum production in the United States doubled from 6.8 million barrels per day (mmbd) in 2008 to 15.3 mmbd in 2018, according to the US Department of Energy (DOE). Record levels of production began when the 11.8 mmbd in 2014 topped the previous high of 11.3 mmbd from 1970.... Read more →

Researchers from the Center for Functional Nanomaterials at Brookhaven National Laboratory and users from ExxonMobil have developed a new approach to identifying atoms that are neither carbon nor hydrogen within a specific type of molecule in crude oil. The team used non-contact atomic force microscopy (nc–AFM), a process in which... Read more →

The Government of Alberta, Canada, is now allowing curtailed operators to drill new conventional oil wells without being restricted by production limits. Existing producing wells will remain under curtailment. The government said that this measure will drive positive investment, lead to increased drilling activity, and support economic growth in communities... Read more →

US shale production—the chief source of rapid growth that made the United States the world’s largest oil producer—is slowing down fast, says a new report by IHS Markit. The new IHS Markit outlook for oil market fundamentals for 2019-2021 expects total US production growth to be 440,000 barrels per day... Read more →

Equinor and the Johan Sverdrup partnership consisting of Lundin Norway, Petoro, Aker BP and Total, have started production from the giant field in the North Sea, more than two months ahead of and NOK 40 billion (US4.4 billion) below the original estimates in the Plan for development and operation. Johan... Read more →

Conventional oil and gas discoveries during the past three years are at the lowest levels in seven decades and a significant rebound is not expected, according to a new report by global business information provider IHS Markit. The low levels in discoveries come as a result of a pullback during... Read more →

Drones attacked two key Saudi Aramco sites in Saudi Arabia—the Abqaiq processing plant and the Khurais oil field—on Saturday; Houthi rebels claimed credit for the strikes. Saudi Aramco emergency crews contained the fires at the plants; the company announced the production suspension of 5.7 million barrels of crude oil per... Read more →

BP has agreed to sell its entire business in Alaska to Hilcorp Alaska, based in Anchorage, Alaska. Under the terms of the agreement, Hilcorp will purchase all of BP’s interests in the state for a total consideration of $5.6 billion. The sale will include BP’s entire upstream and midstream business... Read more →

Crude oil and gas naturally escape from the seabed in many places known as seeps. There, these hydrocarbons move up from source rocks through fractures and sediments towards the surface, where they leak out of the ground and sustain a diversity of densely populated habitats in the dark ocean. A... Read more →

Canadian researchers have developed a large-scale economical method to extract hydrogen from oil sands (natural bitumen) and oil fields. This can be used to power hydrogen-powered vehicles, which are already marketed in some countries, as well as to generate electricity. The process can extract hydrogen from existing oil sands reservoirs,... Read more →

Total US petroleum demand averaged 20.8 million barrels per day (mb/d) in July 2019, which represented a 0.9% year-over-year increase and the highest demand for the month since 2005, according to the latest Monthly Statistical Report released by the American Petroleum Institute (API). This was a decrease of 0.9% from... Read more →

The transportation sector in the US consumes more petroleum than any other sector, and that share has increased over time from about 50% in 1950 to about 70% in 2018, according to the US Department of Energy (DOE). US petroleum consumption increased threefold between 1950 and 2018, from 6.5 million... Read more →

BP and Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) have agreed to form a new joint venture that will include a retail service station network and aviation fuels business across India. Building on Reliance’s existing Indian fuel retailing network and an aviation fuel business, the partners expect the venture to expand rapidly to... Read more →

Eni has released the 18th edition of the World Oil, Gas and Renewables Review, the annual statistics report on oil, natural gas and renewables sources. The first volume of the report, the World Oil Review, is devoted to oil reserves, supply, demand, trade and prices with a special focus on... Read more →

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories, the Department of Energy’s Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies and the Aramco Research Center in Boston have found that a particular form of nanoscale corrosion is responsible for unpredictably decreasing the working life of steel pipes, according to an open-access paper recently published in Nature’s Materials... Read more →

ExxonMobil is progressing growth plans to increase its earnings and cash flow potential while researching technology breakthroughs to reduce emissions, Chairman and CEO Darren Woods said during the company’s annual meeting today. ExxonMobil expects to increase annual earnings potential by more than 140% and double potential annual cash flow from... Read more →

Royal Dutch Shell plc, through its subsidiary Shell Offshore Inc (Shell) has started production at the Shell-operated Appomattox floating production system months ahead of schedule, opening a new frontier in the deep-water US Gulf of Mexico. Shell’s Appomattox Platform in the Gulf of Mexico Appomattox, which currently has an expected... Read more →

Shell Offshore Inc., a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc, announced a significant discovery at the Blacktip prospect in the deep water US Gulf of Mexico. Evaluation is ongoing and appraisal planning is underway to further delineate the discovery and define development options. Blacktip is Shell’s second material discovery in... Read more →

Total OECD annual production of crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGL), and refinery feedstocks increased by 10.3% in 2018 compared to 2017, reaching a record total monthly production of over 100 million tons at the beginning of the year and remaining above this for almost all of 2018, according to... Read more →

Chevron Corporation entered into a definitive agreement with Anadarko Petroleum Corporation to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Anadarko in a stock and cash transaction valued at $33 billion, or $65 per share. Chevron said that its acquisition of Anadarko will significantly enhance its upstream portfolio and further strengthen... Read more →

By Cyril Widdershoven for Oilprice.com. The long-awaited Saudi Aramco acquisition of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) is finally here. With a statement to the press, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser reported that Aramco has acquired a 70 percent stake in SABIC, with an estimated value of $69.1 billion. Aramco’s CEO Nasser... Read more →