New York—US refiner Sunoco last week made a case to analysts for its sweet crude strategy at a time of record prices, but that does not appear to have allayed their concerns and some have lowered their earnings forecasts. Mike Hennigan, Sunoco's senior vice president, supply, trading, sales and transportation, told analysts December 12 while the price is high for sweet crude with less than 0.5% sulfur, new supplies coming on line over the next few years should help. "There's been sweet crude growth in the world that has opened our envelope of crudes," he said. Hennigan said the almost 11 million b/d of sweet crude available to Sunoco in 2005, from both increased production and changes made at Sunoco's plants to run more grades, has jumped to 14.7 million b/d in 2007 and should eventually grow to more than 17 million in 2009.
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