Until a few years ago, the term Industrial Revolution referred to the significant technological changes that began in the late 1700s with the advent of the steam engine, leading to the mechanization of work and the unprecedented economic growth and prosperity that followed.
In April, ExxonMobil launched its 2018 Basestocks Industry Pulse Report. Supported by survey responses from 300 base oil decision makers around the world, the report reveals their own perspectives into the key market trends and industry drivers in the base oils business.
The sheer volume of equipment in a refinery—from vessels, columns, huge structures and mazes of pipes to pumps, valves, controllers and instruments—is staggering.
According to Hydrocarbon Processing’s Construction Boxscore Database, more than 320 new projects have been announced in the downstream processing industry over the past year.
The International Maritime Organization’s (IMO’s) 2020 regulation has been described as the most disruptive change to impact the oil industry in the past 30 yr.
When top oil marketer Geneva Energy Markets LLC liquidated its trading book holding1 “millions of barrels of open interest across crude oil, refined products and natural gas,” managing partner Mark Vonderheide emphasized the pressures and potential damage of new market regulations.
Any personnel working in a refinery or heavy petrochemical plant with “vintage” automation equipment are painfully aware of the effects a distributed control system (DCS) from the 1990s, 1980s or even earlier can have on operations.
A gas processing plant in Malaysia eliminated a source of expensive failures in its acid gas removal unit (AGRU).
US margins recorded losses as crack spreads declined for all products except fuel oil, despite lower refinery crude intakes.
The Chinese refining industry is on the verge of massive production cuts and consolidation. A new tax rule aimed at curbing alleged tax evasion by independents and the end of an era of liberalization in the industry are driving the downsizing.