-PBF Energy CEO Tom O’Malley on Tuesday said U.S. refiners could modify their facilities to process more light crude without investing a lot of money. Speaking at an industry event in London, O’Malley used Valero as an example of a refiner that is making upgrades at its plants to process more of the light crude that is being produced in U.S. shale plays. O’Malley said the U.S. is unlikely to lift its decades-long ban on crude oil exports, an issue that is politically sensitive due to the uncertain impact such a move would have on gasoline prices.
-China is quickly becoming a major global demand center for LNG, as reported by Reuters. Imports grew by 35% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2014 and are expected to grow by a third for the full year. China could pass South Korea to become the world’s second largest importer of LNG behind Japan by the end of the decade. It could help to allay fears of lower Japanese demand amid that country’s decision to stick to nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster of 2011.
-Kinder Morgan’s Plantation pipeline is back up and running after a Monday spill temporarily shut part of it down. The 600,000-barrels-per-day line was idled between Breman, Ga., and Greensboro, N.C., after the spill, which occurred during maintenance work at a pump station in Anderson, S.C.
-Seventy-eight percent of U.S. biodiesel producers have cut back production this year due to government policies that ended tax incentives and threaten to reduce ethanol blending in fuels, the National Biodiesel Board reported today. The biodiesel tax credit, which provided $1 per gallon of diesel produced from biomass, expired last year but could be restored by Congress this week. The EPA last year proposed lowering its Renewable Fuel Standard for 2014, but some experts believe the agency will eventually issue a mandate on par with previous blending requirements.
