Hit the road Jack

摘要

Many refineries in Europe have stopped,or are at least reducing,bitumen production as they upgrade plant and look to cut bottom-of-the-barrel production ahead of the IMO 2020 sulphur cap on marine fuels.This has caused tight supply in some markets,and thus could spur producers further afield to ship tarmac into areas of demand.Falling production may be an unintended consequence of IMO 2020,but the need for bitumen is ever present.Increased car driving in emerging markets and deteriorating road surfaces in developed ones both mean a healthy demand for 'the black stuff.In this issue we focus on one refinery-run by Azerbaijan's SOCAR-that uses the latest off-gas treatment system,to make grade 40/60 road paving bitumen.