Environment & Safety Gas Processing/LNG Maintenance & Reliability Petrochemicals Process Control Process Optimization Project Management Refining

Crude oil

Industry Metrics

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Rhodes, Mike

Refinery margins in the U.S. Atlantic basin rebounded. Deeper refinery intake cuts, as well as the low feedstock price environment, helped offset unappealing demand-side signals.

Base layer enhancement study for crude oil distillation process

Tüpraş: Şanli, H. Ç.  |  Er, B.

Base layer control is one of the most important stages of a process control system hierarchy for refinery applications.

Intensification of sulfur processing units by oxygen enrichment and process flowsheet optimization

Hyundai Oilbank Co. Ltd.: Yang, W.
Advisian, a Worley Company: Lewis, J.  |  Racz, A.

The consistent global trend toward improvements in air quality and tighter regulations on emissions, as well as the International Maritime Organization’s shipping regulations, continue to mitigate sulfur levels—not only in conventional transport fuels (petrol and diesel), but also in jet fuels, fuel oils and other heavier distillates.

Industry Metrics

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Rhodes, Mike

Refinery margins came under added pressure, affected by the downturn in product consumption inflicted by COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.

Business Trends

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Nichols, Lee

Rovuma LNG, a JV comprised of ExxonMobil, Eni and China National Petroleum Corp., will likely delay its final investment decision (FID) on the group’s $30-B Mozambique LNG project.

Rapid crude yield: Merging DHAFE with HTSD

Chevron: Ingham, H.

Rapid crude yield (RCY) combines a detailed hydrocarbon analysis of the front end (DHAFE) with high-temperature simulated distillation (HTSD), creating a true boiling point (TBP) curve for a crude oil sample.

Refining: Despite decline, Group 1 base stocks are here to stay

ExxonMobil: Nadasdi, T.

Given increasingly stringent automotive specifications and the advent of the International Maritime Organization’s 2020 sulfur regulations, the continued decrease in Group I base stocks demand should come as no surprise for anyone in the industry.

Octane enhancement avoiding both high reformer severity and alkylation

CDE Projects Ltd.: Kauders, P.

An innovative refinery process arrangementa converts butane-rich, light paraffinic streams—preferably containing a high proportion of isobutane—into butylene by dehydrogenation.

Safety: Where foresight replaces hindsight: How AI impacts the future of oil and gas safety

Advisian Digital, part of the Worley Group: Stewart, H.
SaltGrid: Aitken, C.

According to the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP), there were 31 fatal incidents across the industry in 2018.

Design of very-high-flow coefficient centrifugal compressor stages

Elliott Group: Jariwala, V.

Centrifugal compressors are widely used in the oil and gas and petrochemical industries, with more than 15,000 operating in the U.S. alone.