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’Petrochina and Ineos partner up in new JV
The long-rumoured partnering up of privately-owned refiner Ineos and Petrochina — China’s largest listed oil firm by capacity– is finally out of the bag.
On Monday, Ineos publicly announced that it would be entering a formal trading venture with the Chinese company,
What on earth are oil investors thinking?
Over the last two trading sessions the two largest oil companies in the United States, Exxon and Chevron announced that in Q4 2009 they lost a combined $6.9 million day on turning crude oil into refined products.
BP’s unsurprising refining surprise
That, for the record, is what happens when analysts don’t mysteriously “mind-meld” a couple of weeks ahead of your results.
As we reported on January 13, a number of analysts spookily cut their earnings forecasts on rival Shell — all at the same time.
Chevron’s refinery slapdown
Wow. We knew things were bad for Chevron’s refining business but we didn’t quite expect this.
From Reuters on Tuesday:
- CHEVRON TO RESTRUCTURE REFINERY OPERATIONS, CUT UNDETERMINED NUMBER OF JOBS
- CHEVRON TO EXIT CERAIN REFINERY MARKETS,
A Q4 refining headache for the oil majors
Shares in Royal Dutch Shell took a bit of a walloping on Wednesday as reports circled the city the company was guiding analysts lower on fourth-quarter numbers:
The reason for the move was seemingly a worse than expected performance in Shell’s downstream and gas operations in the period.
Dubai is worth more than you think
That is, Dubai EFS crude — rather than the emirate itself — is worth more than you think.
As Morgan Stanley highlighted in its commodity outlook for 2010, Dubai crude, which historically traded at a discount to Brent crude due to its heavier and sour quality,
Why refinery shutdowns matter
Last Friday, what many in the energy market had long suspected might happen, happened.
Valero, the largest independent refiner in the US, was forced to close another 200,000-plus barrel-per-day refinery — this time,
Houston, we have a problem
Michael Shedlock of Mish’s Global Trend Analysis flags up a rather worrisome review by some concerned retired auditor folk on the situation facing the City of Houston in Texas, USA.
Indeed, according to Bob Lemer,
Petroplus, still praying for a distillate recovery
Europe’s largest independent refiner, Swiss-based Petroplus, announced a capital raising on Wednesday consisting of a $400m from a senior-note issue, a $150m convertible bond issue and a CHF290m new share issue to boost the firm’s capital and support its acquisition campaign.
Refining, the weakest link in the recovery
Crude oil refining margins have been trying to warn the world about weak US demand for months now. This week’s oil major results may finally spread the realisation that not all is well in industrial demand for energy into the wider public consciousness.
Independent refiner downgrades imminent?
First there was Flying J which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December, 2008, then there was Lyondell Basell, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January, 2009.
And now, the pressure of challenging distillate margins and low demand appears ready to take a toll on some other very prominent independent refiners.
Energy fundamentals shifting
Retail gasoline prices may be going up, but overall refining margins are still in the doldrums.
And this time round it’s the weak distillate component that is really dragging down returns — quite the reverse of last year when gasoline was the predominant demand destruction casualty.