Biden's New Regulations affecting Refineries

POTUS cannot make regulations. Legislative powers belong to Congress. The Executive Branch can issue regulations, but these are only under the authority of laws enacted by Congress. Then, if there is debate/lawsuit whether a regulation does or does not meet the law, SCOTUS gets involved.

Good Luck,
Latexman

Exactly, and there no Executive orders on the topic. The Infrastructure Bill seems to have funding for decarb programs and tax incentives, but I haven't seen any "regulations" as yet, besides apparently some IRS stuff that allows tax credits for investment in those types of projects. Nothing that would shut a refinery down that I could throw shade on Biden for anyway.

Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

It's not "the regulations". This is the result of my desktop study. I'd appreciate any comments.

The issue isn't the refinery capacity as much as it is the oil produced in the US.  Shale oil, now virtually all US oil production, is light, much of it being API 40+, and to make diesel and kerosene, it must be mixed with a heavier oil.   Heavy is imported.  If you import Heavy crude, a lot of it is not useful to produce diesel and kerosene.  Those are the products that sell here.  Heavy oil gives you a higher % of heavier fuel oils and residuals.  The question then becomes, do you really want to buy all those Heavy components in the heavier oils, remembering that you must also pay for transport and handling of the whole load, then you have to refine the whole load mixed with some US lite oil.  All that importing, transport, handling, mixing and refining starts to add up, resulting in it being cheaper to build refineries close to the Heavy oils, lettng them make the diesel and kerosene there and then only importing the diesel and kerosene we need here.  We used to get heavier oils from Mexico and Venezuela.  Mexico's output is declining and Venezuela's oil is not being purchased in the US.  Canada has heavy, but its expensive.  They also have tar sands.  Tar sand oil is also expensive to separate from the sand, takes a lot of heat and water and is quite an environmental issue.  So, none of those are great alternatives.  So, costs of refining in the US are higher for all of those reasons.  Its not the air quality regulations, or any other regulations.  Regulations have always been there and refineries have always kept up with them before.  What has changed is the characteristics of the crude oils easily available in North America.  Obama, Trump and Biden have nothing to do with refinery closings, unless you consider foreign relations with Venezuela.  That might work, but otherwise, its the geology and even DeSantis isn't going to change that.

Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

Heavy oils such as oil sands and Orinoco crude from Venezuela are heavy oils and therefore their barrel is more refractory, therefore, the most suitable for producing diesel, therefore, it is necessary to have more distillation units such as hydrocrakers, so that the barrel of crude oil has a minimum of heavy oil to feed residual coke units.

regards

luis

Thanks Luis.
It also seems that there are significant preheater modifications needed for lighter products, as the specific heat capacity is much less than the heavier crudes and the ratio of atmospheric unit capacity increases too. The heating fuel bill is considerably higher.

These lighter oils also come with more wax and solids as well, 10 tons/day for a 100Kbbl/day refinery, plus a generally higher H2S content. And asphaltene precipitation control is apparently more difficult with the higher wax content. These factors can cause significant fouling and resulting maintenance shutdowns.

Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

42% of the 3 mmbpd of bitumen (heavy oil) produced in Alberta is upgraded on-site using cokers and Diesel and naphtha hydrotreaters to produce a premium light synthetic crude oil, basically a mixture of kerosene and naphtha that is pipelined south for easy refining into finished product.

Does that go to Washington State?

Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

And to the upper mid-west.
This has mostly to do with what crude sources were plentiful when the refineries were built.
And linked to that is the environmental regulations at the time.
Though many of these have been updated some are still specific to the process.
There have been projects at some refineries to improve yield with lighter crude, but you are still limited by the incoming molecules.
Most US refineries would run more efficiently with the right amount (based on each sites process units) of Orinoco crude to blend with.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
P.E. Metallurgy, consulting work welcomed

Its all BIDEN's FAULT !!! Its all BIDEN's FAULT !!! Its all BIDEN's FAULT !!!

Its all BIDEN's FAULT !!! Its all BIDEN's FAULT !!! Its all BIDEN's FAULT !!!

Its all BIDEN's FAULT !!! Its all BIDEN's FAULT !!! Its all BIDEN's FAULT !!!

Its all BIDEN's FAULT !!!..

Turn off FOXNEWS once in a while, bucko ....



MJCronin
Sr. Process Engineer

That's how the question was framed to me.
I voted SOLID BLUE, which should not surprise anyone here.

Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."