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Vaxications, a Texas Deep Freeze, and Summer Driving Season – finally a booster shot for refining margins? Last time I wrote (January of this year) we were in the midst of the second wave of Covid-19 in many places around the world and things were not looking so great for refining margins once again. In […]

With higher refined product prices, conversion margins improve Despite a new and more severe wave of Covid-19 and its restrictions, product prices and demand have been surprisingly resilient. We have seen diesel and gasoline cracks hold up nicely over the last few weeks leading to some healthier conversion unit margins, especially at the Fluid Catalytic […]

Distillate production back in favor, but will it reverse again before the winter is over? As you may recall, I wrote about distillate pricing relative to gasoline (a large determinant of refining operating strategy) a couple months back. At that time, we had finally seen gasoline start to lift away from diesel as relentless inventory […]

As industry increasingly recognizes the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI), companies are seeking how to best fit AI into their business strategy. AI, however, is relatively young and the extensive benefits it provides demand creative solutions to unique challenges. Successfully implementing AI requires a deliberate and dedicated approach that sometimes differs from implementing more standard […]

Most complex facilities such as refineries and chemical plants utilize some type of Linear Programming (LP) software to optimize and help plan for feedstocks, unit conditions, and even future investments. These models generally optimize a system of linear equations against a set of constraints given an objective function (usually profitability). Specialized LP engineers are needed […]

US Distillates Market begins to feel the pinch Since the pandemic started and we saw Jet demand drop to levels unseen in many years, I have postulated that distillates will go long in a significant and difficult to deal with way in the US. This is due to the need to blend or fractionate a […]

The recent COVID-19 outbreak caused a major disruption to peoples’ movements around the world, resulting in a very sharp curtailment of international air travel. Demand for jet fuel, normally a high value refined product and one of the easiest products to sell, was suddenly at record lows with negative crack spreads recorded in all markets. […]

The pitch “So, how does your platform work?,” you ask the artificial intelligence (AI) Industry 4.0 vendor. “Well, our agnostic AI technology feeds on all of your data sources in real time, and generates predictions, warnings, prescriptions, and recommendations that help you optimize your yield and throughput, while minimizing your losses.” He continues with a […]

The Covid-19 global pandemic’s effects on markets and how manufacturers continue to adapt to this market disruption Welcome to the first in a monthly series of market analysis and commentary articles brought to you by the Imubit Economic Engineering team. These will provide interesting and timely content centered around hydrocarbon markets and economics including transportation […]