Recently added articles from Octane Week:

European Commission Proposes Global Oil Summit

Jun 16, 2008; Franco, Joanna ... The European Commission has suggested the creation of a global summit between oil producers and consuming countries, in order to address recent record high oil prices. That proposal was just one of many that the lawmaking body suggested when it met last week to discuss shorter-term and ...

Saudi Arabia to Host Talks on High Oil Prices

Jun 16, 2008; Franco, Joanna ... Saudi Arabia will be hosting talks on June 22 between oil producing countries and consumers, in order to talk about oil's recent high prices, various news agencies reported. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has said it will attend the meeting, while the U.S. has not yet said whether ...

Canadian Political Parties Bicker About Proposed Carbon Tax

Jun 16, 2008; Graham, Taylor ... Canada's Conservatives are preparing a campaign against a proposed Liberal carbon tax, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The Climate Change and Emissions Reduction Act, or Bill 15, features a 60-point plan for environmentally-friendly initiatives such as changes to the ...

Petronas Delays Sudan Refinery

Jun 16, 2008; Haldis, Peter ... As expected, Malaysian state oil company Petronas has decided to delay plans to build a 100,000-150,000 b/d refinery in Port Sudan, Sudan, due to increased construction costs (face=+Italic; see OW 6/2/2008face=-Italic; ) . Construction costs have climbed so high that the refinery is no ...

Final Passage of Amendments to Calif. RFG Program Stalled

Jun 16, 2008; Franco, Joanna ... A California state office has prevented amendments to the Phase 3 California Reformulated Gasoline (CaRFG3) program from becoming law because the amendment package that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) had submitted was incomplete, CARB announced Wednesday. CARB said the state's ...

Senate Republicans Block Windfall Tax Bill

Jun 16, 2008; Franco, Joanna ... U.S. Senate Republicans blocked last week a bill that would have created a 25% windfall profits tax on oil companies that did not invest in alternative energy. The Consumer-First Energy Act of 2008, S. 3044, also would have removed a $17 billion tax break from oil and gas companies, ...

U.S. EPA Deals Setback to ConocoPhillips, EnCana Refinery Expansion

Jun 16, 2008; Haldis, Peter ... A U.S. EPA appeal board recently rejected the necessary air permits for the planned expansion of the Wood River, Ill., joint venture refinery owned by ConocoPhillips and Canadian oil sands producer EnCana. The expansion is part of the joint venture the companies formed in 2006 to ...

GM Sets Up Hydrogen Fueling Stations, Creates 'Green' Ads

Jun 16, 2008; Franco, Joanna ... U.S. automaker General Motors (GM) is attempting to ramp up its efforts to be "green" or environmentally friendly, based on several initiatives announced last week. Last Wednesday, the company announced that it would be opening a hydrogen fueling station in Los Angeles with partner Clean ...

Big Three to Get $30 Million fro DOE for Plug-in Hybrids Research

Jun 16, 2008; Franco, Joanna ... The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding up to $30 million over the next three years to the Big Three automakers so that they can develop plug-in hybrid vehicles. DOE hopes that the $30 million in funding will help U.S. automakers Ford, General Motors and Chrysler develop plug-in ...

Pemex Needs to Invest $50 billion in Refining

Jun 16, 2008; Haldis, Peter ... An official from Mexico's state oil company Pemex said last week the company needs to spend $50 billion on refining from 2009-2017, face=+Italic; Business News Americasface=-Italic; reported. About $6 billion of that will be needed to expand and reconfigure three existing refineries, ...

Developing Countries' Fuel Subsidies Driving Up Worldwide Oil Prices

Jun 16, 2008; Franco, Joanna ... Of the 10 countries worldwide that had the highest oil demand growth rate between 2005 and 2006, nine of the 10 shielded their citizens from high oil prices through price controls. As a result, demand has only continued to grow, thus inflating oil prices even more, said consulting firm ...

U.S. Gulf Crack Spread Falls 23%

Jun 16, 2008 ... [bullet] The U.S. Gulf Coast 3-2-1 crack spread dipped 23% between May 30 and June 6, from $20.94/bbl to $16.06/bbl. The dip ended a four-week ...

Second Petrobras Refinery to Have 300,000 b/d Capacity

Jun 16, 2008; Haldis, Peter ... The second new refinery Petrobras is planning will have a capacity of 300,000 b/d, the company's downstream director said last week. The refinery will be export-oriented and will likely begin operations in 2013 or 2014, downstream director Paulo Roberto Costa said, face=+Italic; Latin ...

U.S. Retail Gasoline Price Spread Climbs as Oil Prices Climb

Jun 16, 2008 ... [bullet] For the last eight weeks, the average spread between U.S. reformulated and conventional gasoline, regular grade, is 12¢/gal. [bullet] For midgrade gasoline, that spread is 14¢/gal, while that ...

IEA: OECD Gasoline Demand Up 1%

Jun 16, 2008; Franco, Joanna ... Gasoline demand for member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) actually rose year-on-year in April, the first increase in months. Total OECD gasoline demand in April was 14.95 million b/d--an increase of 1% from April of last year. The greatest ...

Price Page

Jun 16, 2008

NYMEX Crude Back Below $135/bbl Friday

Jun 16, 2008; Haldis, Peter ... The price of the July NYMEX crude oil futures contract fell 1.4%, to $134.86/bbl, Friday. The price was down 2.7% on the week. The prompt Brent crude futures contract was down similarly Friday, closing at ...

Total Exec Sees 2020 World Oil Capacity at Around 95 Million b/d

Jun 09, 2008; Franco, Joanna ... French oil company Total projects worldwide oil production to stabilize at around 95 million b/d by 2020, the company's director of strategy and economic intelligence told face=+Italic; Dow Jones Newswiresface=-Italic; last week. Jean-Jacques Mosconi said he sees Iraq becoming a major ...

Neste to Build New Isomerization Unit

Jun 09, 2008; Franco, Joanna ... Finland's Neste Oil will build a new isomerization unit at its Porvoo refinery, the company announced recently. Constructing the new unit will enable the company to increase the refinery's total gasoline output by 200,000 t/a. The new unit will cost approximately EUR 80 million ....

Axens Gets Design Package for Saudi Aramco, Total JV Refinery

Jun 09, 2008; Haldis, Peter ... French company Axens announced last week it has been awarded a design package for the 400,000 b/d refinery Saudi Aramco and Total are building in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Axens and its partners are designing a 32,000 b/d vacuum diesel fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) and an aromatics complex ...