The National Petroleum Refiners Association will encourage refiners to take a more active role in the debate on improving air quality in he U.S., says Richard I. Robinson, newly elected chairman of NPRA.
NPRA, traditionally not involved in direct lobbying, will continue to support refiner efforts with technical and economic information.
Robinson, vice-president of refining, Phillips Petroleum Co., said lawmakers should let the market determine the use of reformulated or alternative fuels (see p. 30). He also said fuel compositions should not be mandated.
He favors a regional approach to regulations rather than nationwide mandates.
Refiners in the U.S. and Europe who fear that curbs on benzene in gasoline will eventually make their catalytic reformers obsolete and lose a valuable source of hydrogen can breathe easier, says William P. Barry, Dewitt & Co., Houston.
Instead of the curbs contributing to a worldwide benzene glut, he expects a benzene supply shortfall to grow to 3.3-5.9 million tons in 1999, even if refiners must cut benzene in the gasoline pool to 1 vol %.
OPEC crude production in March averaged 23.7 million b/d, unchanged from increased estimates of output in February, says the International Energy Agency in its latest oil market report. That is nearly 87, above the organization's production ceiling.
Total world supplies outside the centrally planned economies rose 300,000 b/d to 54.3 million b/d, mainly as a result of higher estimated production from the U.K., Norway, and Canada.
Although there is an underlying feeling in oil markets that production levels are too high for comfort, prices remain fairly steady.
North Sea Brent blend for May delivery declined to 18.25/bbl, a 10/bbl loss on the week. WTI futures for May delivery closed Apr. 4 at $19.78/bbl, down 70 on the week.
Natural gas futures for June delivery closed at $1.635/MMBTU and $1.62/MMBTU Apr. 3 and 4, the first 2 days of trading on the Nymex. The prices are more than 20 higher than the estimated April average spot price of gas in the U.S.
Some 925 contracts of 10 MMcf each were traded Apr. 3, about twice as many as the exchange anticipated.
Aggressive marketing, brisker economic activity, and a slight reduction in conservation have bolstered demand in the natural gas distribution industry, says an analyst with Duff & Phelps Inc., Chicago.
A preliminary analysis suggests that proposed clean air legislation could boost gas demand by as much as 1 tcf/year by the mid-1990s, says analyst Janet Dzwierzynski.
Energy Sec. James Watkins will appoint about 30 gas industry executives to the National Petroleum Council, his oil industry advisory panel, bringing it to 150 persons.
Watkins was responding to requests by the Interstate Natural Gas Association and the American Gas Association to get more gas industry input at DOE. The groups originally wanted Watkins to create the post of assistant secretary for natural gas.
Meanwhile, the American Gas Association abandoned hopes of recruiting-gas producers to its ranks (OGJ, Dec. 25, 1989, p. 28).
It said producers' response to the idea "was not too encouraging." A spokesman added, "It's too bad. We were trying to get industry to work together."
AGA still will seek producers' participation in advertising and marketing programs.
Interior Sec. Manuel Lujan says President Bush will decide "in a few weeks" whether and when to hold two controversial lease sales off California and one off Florida.
Lujan said Bush has asked for "quite a bit more information" about aspects of the sales, but would not say what Bush requested.
Lujan himself faces an offshore leasing decision soon.
A task force formed to resolve conflicts concerning an April 1992 Washington-Oregon lease sale recommended the sale be deferred for 7 years, industry's interest in drilling be polled, and about $20 million in additional studies be conducted.
AS Norske Shell said the world's first subsea pump station is ready for use in Draugen field on Norway's Haltenbanken.
Shell said the Shell Multiphase Underwater Booster Station (Smubs), was developed jointly with Framo Engineering, Sandsli, Norway, to extend the distance a satellite well can be positioned from its process unit.
Den norske stats oljeselskap AS and BP Norway, Shell's partners in Draugen field, will be asked to approve the use of Smubs to boost a subsea well in the field.
Mass work stoppages due to ethnic unrest cut Soviet oil production 47, and coal output 6% in January and February compared with the same months of 1989, a deputy prime minister said.
This state of affairs demands that the government make substantial economic adjustments, Academician Leonid Abalkin told the Government Herald newspaper.
"For the (free) market to become a reality it is essential to radically change the price formation mechanism, introduce a single profit taxation system, change the lending policy, and take antiinflationary measures and measures for the social protection of low income groups."
Abalkin called for the changes to be made simultaneously no later than Jan. 1, 1991.
Wintershall AG, Kassel, West Germany, has cleared most of the regulatory hurdles needed to start the 360 mile, 32 in. Midal gas pipeline from Rysum near Emden to Ludwigshaven, with a spur line to the East German border near Herzfelde.
Midal, the country's first independently owned gas pipeline, is scheduled to start up in 1993 with initial capacity of 290 MMcfd (OGJ, Nov. 27, 1989, p. 27).
Wintershall said it has nonobjection rulings from five federal states through which the line will pass and expects the green light from North Rhine-Westphalia once legal procedures have been completed.
East Germany plans to allow western oil companies to supply its oil products markets, currently dependent on imports from the Soviet Union.
Klaus Eichner, director of the state oil company Minol that will become a private sector company later this month, said West German companies including DEA, Aral, and Avia had showed interest in supplying the East German market.
Deutsche BP already has a joint venture with Minol and plans to open its first gasoline filling station in Dresden later this year.
RWE-DEA, Hamburg, West Germany, has patented a process in which polyethylene glycol is used to reduce the adhesion of reservoir rock so that only a small volume of polymer remains in the pores during polymer flooding for enhanced oil recovery.
The polyethylene glycol is said to be one fourth the cost of Hoechst AG's Hostamer, the primary polymer developed to meet reservoir conditions in Plon Ost field.
The field has produced about 51 million bbl of light oil since 1958 and is believed to have 131 million bbl remaining in place.
The 8,000 ft reservoir, one of several fields in the Schleswig-Holstein area, is a tight sandstone interbedded with clays with 15% saline water and 195 F. temperature.
Increased oil production is expected by mid-1991 from a Plon Ost pilot area where injection began in summer 1990.
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