As Hurricane Florence approached the East Coast this week, nearly two million residents throughout the Carolinas, Maryland and Virginia were placed under evacuation watch.
The cost of Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) compliance credits, specifically D6 renewable identification numbers (RINs), is out of control. Sales of D6 RINs for conventional ethanol recently registered above $1.90 (the highest trades in history).
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Fossil Energy and the U.S. Department of Transportation, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration formally submitted the Congressionally-mandated Sandia National Laboratories technical report on crude oil combustion properties to Congress.
Have you ever wondered how crude oil or natural gas is processed, and how it becomes the building blocks of products we use everyday? This infographic gives a basic snapshot of how petrochemical...
Earnings in commodities-based industries tend to be cyclical. Because of the up-and-down reality of refining, it would be a mistake to regulate or legislate based on the high points. A few quarters of earnings don’t provide an accurate representation. That context is important for answering the question of what happens with refinery profits and whether using earnings to “buy back” stock from shareholders is an appropriate use of those funds.
America’s freight rail system is an essential part of our national and global supply chains, including those for fuels and petrochemicals. While a work stoppage would be devastating, service curtailments and other strike impacts will be felt much sooner—before a strike is formally launched. As we learned this September, railroads will begin metering traffic and embargoing shipments of materials critical to the refining and petrochemical industries up to a week or more before a strike begins.
Publicly owned companies, like many U.S. refineries, have a fiduciary responsibility (which is a legal obligation) to act in the best interest of their shareholders, and that extends to how companies spend their earnings. Often, earnings are spent on a combination of the following: direct dividends, stock buy back programs, paying down debt and capital investment projects.
It was 2010 and Jerry Wascom, ExxonMobil’s Americas refining director, was worried. Despite fuel and petrochemical manufacturers making significant improvements in the safety of their individual operations, across the industries there was an uptick in serious incidents. Workers were getting injured, surrounding communities were losing confidence, the reputation of the industries was being tarnished and regulators were becoming increasingly engaged. Wascom turned to his counterparts within the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Association (AFPM), the industry trade group, and asked, “Are we doing enough to protect people?”
AFPM members including fuel manufacturers, petrochemical manufacturers and service providers (e.g., construction, technology and consulting firms) are seeking skilled employees for a range of positions.