Improving Cracks Offer Hope to U.S. Refiners

摘要

The prevailing mood amongst the U.S. refining community has been distinctly gloomy of late. Energy Intelligence Agency (EIA) data reveals that utilisation rates have remained the wrong side of 80% for much of winter 2009-10. By late-January, utilisation had plunged to 77.7%, the lowest level outside of hurricane season for at least ten years. During the same period, crude inputs have been significantly down on a year-on-year basis, and, at their January nadir of 13.46 mb/d, were at a similar level to those reported during a number of recent hurricane seasons. All this, along with weak demand fundamentals and uninspiring crack spreads (the differential between the price received for a particular petroleum product from the refining process and the price paid for crude oil ), has led to heavily-reduced crude runs and the decision to close a number of refineries permanently.