Economics
Europe braces for heavy oil refinery outages amid tight supplies
A heavy oil refinery turnaround season in Europe this autumn, plus French strike action, is set to push diesel prices higher and tighten supplies ahead of a European Union ban on Russian refined products which is due to come into force early next year.
French refinery strikes are timed to hit hard
Strike action and unplanned maintenance has taken offline more than 60% of France's refining capacity - or 740,000 bpd - forcing the country to import more when global supply uncertainty has increased the cost.
bp layoffs at Ohio refinery after fire indicate prolonged shutdown
bp laid off most contractors at the approximately 160,000 barrel-per-day Toledo, Ohio, refinery it owns with Cenovus Energy Inc, indicating that the plant will experience a prolonged shutdown following last week's explosion and fire.
Strike action, outages in France's refined product sector
France's refined products sector is under strain as a result of strike action over pay and unplanned maintenance which have led to more than 40% of its refining capacity being taken offline.
Niger suspends oil product deliveries to Mali, except for U.N.
Niger has temporarily stopped issuing authorizations for oil product deliveries to neighboring Mali unless they are destined to the United Nations peacekeeping mission there, the government said.
The downstream rundown: In case you missed it 09/23
In case you missed any downstream news, here are the top stories from last week.
Cameroon and oil trader Vitol reach agreement over refinery debt restructure
Cameroon's national oil refining company, SONARA, has reached a deal with oil trader Vitol to restructure its commercial debt towards the Dutch energy and commodity trading company.
Fortescue announces execution plan for industry-leading decarbonization
Fortescue Metals Group Ltd updated its world leading heavy industry decarbonization strategy, aiming to eliminate fossil fuel use and achieve real zero terrestrial emissions (Scope 1 and 2) across its iron ore operations by 2030.
Refiners say fuel prices could increase and production plummet if rail strike proceeds
Upon sending the letter, Chet Thomson issued the following statement stressing the importance of rail transit to the refining and petrochemical industries and the need for broader rail reform.
Fuel markets to stay tight till mid-2020s as refining shrinks
Crude oil refining capacity has shrunk by a record 3.8 MM barrels per day from March 2020 to mid-2022 as demand expanded, setting the stage for fuel markets to remain very tight until at least mid-decade.
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