By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, July 12 -- Refinery problems in Venezuela and increased deliveries of crude oil from Canada are brightening the outlook for US refiners, says Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.
Interruptions of refining in Venezuela have reduced product shipments to the US, created demand for exports by the US, and increased the availability of heavy crude that Venezuela’s refineries normally would run.
Deutsche Bank reported “numerous” Venezuelan upsets, including:
• Idling of Petroleos de Venezuela SA’s 335,000-b/d Isla refinery in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, until at least September because of major boiler maintenance.
• Nationwide rationing of electricity and outages, which hurt all Venezuelan refineries.
• Delay in restart of the 64,000-b/d flexicoker at the Cardon refinery, part of the 940,000-b/d Paraguana Refining Center. The planned downtime was Apr. 6-May 21, but heavy rains have been blamed for extending the outage.
• The cracker at the Cardon refinery in the Paraguana center has had two fires since resuming operations in February after an 18-month upgrade.
• The catalytic cracker at the 60,000-b/d El Palito refinery, offline for an expansion that began last year and was supposed to have lasted only a couple of months, didn’t restart until late May.
Deutsche Bank also noted that an earthquake in Chile closed that country’s two refineries, which boosted product exports from the US West Coast and tightened markets in the Rockies.
The developments “have caused US net product trade to turn sharply into net export territory,” Deutsche Bank said.
Canadian crude
Meanwhile, Canadian crude exports to the US Midwest have surged with the start-up of 435,000 b/d of capacity in the first phase of TransCanada’s Keystone pipeline system, now terminating at Patoka, Ill.
Capacity of the system will increase to 591,000 b/d when a second phase, between Steele City, Neb., and Cushing, Okla., starts up in the first quarter next year.
TransCanada wants to extend the system to the US Gulf Coast in a project that would push total capacity to about 1.1 million b/d.
Also, Enbridge is filling its Alberta Clipper pipeline between Hardisty, Alta., and Superior, Wis., which will add 450,000 b/d of transport capacity into the US when it starts up in the fall. Enbridge hopes to expand capacity to 800,000 b/d.
“The [Canadian] export story has helped offset weakish distillate demand,” Deutsche Bank said.
Photo from ExxonMobil Corp.
Photos from Repsol SA.
