Posts Tagged ‘diesel’

When the bunker fuel pool cleans up, it will be good ol’ diesel doing the job

By John Kingston | June 11, 2013 11:47 PM Comments (3)

The bottom of the barrel — residual fuel, bunker fuel, asphalt and petroleum coke — take up a little more than 5% of total US consumption. But because of new rules affecting the second of that group, bunkers, it’s about to undergo an upheaval that could easily spill over into other markets.

The consensus on day one of the Platts 10th Bunker & Residual Fuel Conference in Houston is that despite significant talk about the shipping industry getting to mandated lower sulfur levels through a variety of means — LNG or desulfurizing onboard scrubbers being the most prominent alternatives — it’s almost certainly going to be marine gasoil or marine diesel that gets the shipping industry across the finish line.

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Making money in Hawaii’s oil market is like pushing a boulder up a volcano

By Jeffrey Bair | May 10, 2013 12:43 PM Comments (2)

They like to say around the Platts office in Houston that California is an island.

An economic island, that is. The kind where the spot prices of gasoline and other refined fuels are insulated from the bob and weave of trades in the rest of the United States.

It’s an interesting analogy. But consider how fuel economics are affecting a real-live island right now: Oahu.

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Diesel, diesel everywhere; time to stop and think?

By Tim Worledge | April 16, 2013 03:19 PM Comments (3)

Ancient, historic, glorious Venice became the latest European location to lob a brick into the spokes of diesel’s dominance across the continent, with a stage-managed, short-lived but thought-provoking ban on all powered vessels using the legendary Grand Canal. Is Europe’s most romantic city signaling the beginning of the end for Europe’s diesel love affair? Read the rest of this entry »

Europe’s high sulfur gasoil: reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated

By Tim Worledge | December 28, 2012 03:04 AM Comments (0)

Scouring through the official stock and consumption data published by European governments is one of the glamour aspects of the job. While it might present the average oil analyst, trader, refiner etc. with an invaluable insight into the state of demand for the various oil products, every now and then sifting through the data throws up an interesting conundrum.

Data released by the German Mineralölwirtschaftsverbrand (MWV) has thrown an interesting light (no, really) on the health of an oil product that has been under some threat:  the high sulfur 0.1% gasoil that has been the mainstay of German domestic heating oil. In fact, 2012 was something of a bumper year for the out-of-fashion grade, so have reports of its death been greatly exaggerated?

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France’s fuel cut fails to find favor amongst l’automobiliste

By Tim Worledge | October 19, 2012 11:37 AM Comments (4)

Generally it’s an accepted view that it is good intentions that pave the road to hell. Doubtless, the French government had the very best of intentions when it followed through on an election promise and announced it would ride to the aid of hard-pressed motorists by hacking a full six euro cents off the cost of road fuels.

In the spirit of liberty, equality and fraternity, the government was not alone in making sacrifices to ensure the cut came through. France’s treasury accepted a three cent cut in fuel duty, with the country’s retailers chipping in the other three cents.

The one snag is that it doesn’t seem to have worked.

According to data from France’s petroleum body, UFIP, and in common with a trend seen across other parts of Europe, road fuel consumption is in decline,  a decline which is starting to border on free fall. As economies continue to struggle across Europe, was the cut too little, too late? Read the rest of this entry »

Now we are one: Europe’s 10 ppm gasoil contract marks its first anniversary

By Tim Worledge | September 21, 2012 10:02 AM Comments (2)

It may well have passed your attention, but the low sulfur ICE gasoil contract marked its first birthday this week. How come this wasn’t marked on my diary? Is my smart phone playing up? Has my secretary let me down? Should I send flowers? Chocolates? How do I mark this occasion? Or you might think… ‘Er… And…?’

Well, hold hard there; this is important. New futures contracts come along from time to time, and most are rapidly consigned to the dustbin of history, passing unremarked and–critically–untraded. Not this one. This is widely touted to be the future, the apprentice to one of the most successful futures contracts that’s currently out there. Read the rest of this entry »

Feast to famine: Europe’s diesel market remembers the feel of the lean years

By Tim Worledge | July 11, 2012 10:51 AM Comments (0)

Europe’s middle distillate market has long been seen as the cradle of the successful refining margin. Bolstered by legislation that has driven out sulfur and installed the road fuel as the premium product for the region, diesel demand across the continent has by far outstripped the local capacity to produce it.

That’s brought a world of change to the very heart of refining economics, fundamentally recasting diesel as the powerhouse for successful refiners. It has seen those who can’t maximize their middle distillate production fall dramatically by the wayside.

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Selling coals to Newcastle: How the Europeans conquered the US diesel market

By Tim Worledge | April 26, 2012 05:54 PM Comments (0)

Sales people the world over have their own idioms, in-jokes or phrases to describe that ultimate sale. In Victorian Britain, so the story goes, a US businessman once succeeded in selling coal to Newcastle, one of the UK’s more mineral-rich regions. The incident has passed into the language as the definition of just such a situation.

Flash forward to the 21st century, and a press release from Finland’s oil company Neste, published Thursday, seems to provide the modern equivalent of achieving that impossible sale.

Neste has sold renewable diesel to the United States.

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Diesel’s rise gives refiners that familiar headache from gasoline fumes

By News Desk | September 30, 2011 09:34 AM Comments (0)

European refiners, that most endangered of species, are facing up to the realities of the markets they serve with an increasing sense of despair, it seems.

At a recent conference on European refining markets, organized by Platts, the scale of the fears gripping the sector were really brought to light with one senior figure from an Italian independent refiner daring to think the hitherto unthinkable.

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EIA analysis: Imports grow due to SPR; diesel use also is climbing

By News Desk | August 31, 2011 04:46 PM Comments (0)

This week’s Energy Information Administration analysis again shows more evidence of SPR crude flowing into the market. But what’s interesting is that for an economy that is showing plenty of signs of weakness, diesel demand remains healthy.

Diesel, far more than gasoline, is the fuel of economic activity. And though many signs point to a slowdown in the economy as a whole, diesel consumption isn’t falling as part of that bearish barometer. You can see Linda Rafield’s analysis here.

 

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