-Refining margins in the U.S. are at their highest seasonal level in 10 years on strong summer demand for gasoline, Reuters reports. Refiners earn a gross margin of 77 cents per gallon to make gasoline from West Texas Intermediate crude — 26 cents more per gallon than this time last year. High gasoline consumption is being driven by some of the cheapest pump prices seen in years and overall economic growth.
-Energy researchers believe the era of unusually high margins may soon come to end, however. The startups of new refineries and upgraded units at existing refineries will cause the global refinery utilization rate to decline, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). IEA said most of the new capacity is sprouting up in the U.S. Global refining capacity is expected to increase by 1.1 million barrels per day in 2015 and 2016.
-OSHA has labeled DuPont a “severe violator” after investigations that followed the deaths of four workers at the company’s La Porte, Texas, plant last November. OSHA Assistant Secretary David Michaels said the four deaths and hazards discovered in ensuing investigations by the agency were “evidence of a failed safety culture.” The workers were killed when more than 20,000 pounds of methyl mercaptan were released into a building.
-Shell Oil Co. may soon drop the word “oil” from its name, the head of the company’s upstream Americas business said Thursday. Via Bloomberg, Shell’s Marvin Odum said at the Toronto Global Forum the oil reference is “a little old fashioned” given the parent company’s increased focus on natural gas and renewable energy.
-Odum also said his company could rekindle some idled oil sands projects — but only if the price of oil rebounds to $80 per barrel. Via the Financial Post, Shell has delayed its 80,000-barrel-per-day Carmon Creek project by two years and has yet to approve a 100,000-barrel-per-day Jackpine expansion. Odum said Canada remains “extremely important” to Shell, citing an ongoing West Coast LNG project and exploration off the coast of Nova Scotia.
