-Refiners may benefit from higher fuel demand as a result of low oil prices this year, Valero vice president Anthony Rouse said at IHS Energy’s CERAWeek conference on Monday. Via FuelFix, U.S. drivers will pay $1 per gallon less this year than they did in 2014, which could encourage higher consumption. Rouse also said refiners would remain competitive if the U.S. government lifted its ban on crude oil exports due to their access to cheap natural gas.
-Also at CERAWeek, BP Downstream head Tufan Erginbilgic said lifting the crude oil export ban would keep the price spread between West Texas Intermediate crude and Brent crude at $5 per barrel. Via Platts, Erginbilgic said a change in policy would smooth dramatic shifts in the price differential.
-Meanwhile, IHS expects the U.S. to surpass the Middle East as the world’s largest exporter of light naphtha by 2020. Light naptha demand is expected to grow everywhere except North America, where ethane, propane and butane have largely replaced naphtha as a primary feedstock for steam crackers. In addition, increased tight oil production from North America has flooded the global market with excess light naphtha.
-The American Chemistry Council (ACC) expects increased business activity in the chemical sector going into the fourth quarter of 2015. ACC’s Chemical Activity Barometer was up 0.1% in April based on a three-month average and is up 2.6% year-over-year. The barometer is based on production, equity prices, product prices and inventories.
-Scientists have linked a series of small earthquakes that occurred near Fort Worth, Texas, in 2013 and 2014 to underground injection of fracking wastewater. Via the Associated Press, the Southern Methodist University study also suggests removing saltwater from wells during the gas production process is a secondary cause of earthquakes. Similar studies have linked underground oil and gas wastewater injection to earthquakes in Ohio, Oklahoma and Kansas.
