Published on Tuesday, April 28 2020
Authors: By Robert Auers and John Auers

As refiners looked toward 2020, many had dreams of growing margins driven by a continuation of strong global economic activity supplemented by an expected IMO boost to product margins and widening of heavy crude discounts.  Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has turned those dreams into nightmares, with the unprecedented drop in…

Published on Tuesday, April 21 2020
Authors: John Auers and Robert Auers

Over the last two weeks, we have discussed how the unprecedented drop off in petroleum demand from COVID-19 lockdown measures is impacting crude slates at U.S. refineries.  In the previous blogs, we looked at both the inland regions (PADDs 2 and 4) and the largest refining region, PADD 3.  Refiners…

Published on Tuesday, April 14 2020
Authors: John Auers and Robert Auers

Last week, we began our series analyzing how the collapse in petroleum demand and subsequent required reductions in refining throughput will impact crude slates at U.S. refineries.  In that blog, we discussed the fundamental factors which influence the types of crudes refiners purchase and the regional differences influencing those factors. …

Published on Tuesday, April 7 2020
Authors: John Auers and Robert Auers

Last week, we discussed the challenges refiners are experiencing in the face of the sharpest and quickest drop in demand the world has ever experienced.  Our focus in that blog was on how much refinery utilization would have to decline, the difficulties associated with “turndown” limits on units and the…