Negative margins and OPEC prices: how buyers and sellers are coping
Apparent refining margins are so poor that many US refiners have accelerated their destocking, waiting for market uncertainty to be resolved. Margins based on official OPEC prices continue to be virtually all negative, including very light oils from the Middle East; by now, up to half the world's oil trade may reflect spot marketing, compared to less than 10% a few years ago. In today's buyer's market for crude oil, several sellers are resorting to multi-faceted discounts amounting to as much as US $4.50 or more under official OPEC prices. But meanwhile, US oil importers have learned how not to rely so much on a traditional run of crude oil: they are running reduced crude, resid, cat feed, condensate; and they are blending components for lighter products by importing and swapping whenever even pennies per barrel can be saved. This issue presents: (1) refining netback data, US Gulf and West Coasts, late November 1984 (official/contract vs spot crude prices; (2) asphalt export prices to the US from Canada, N. Antilles, and Venezuela; and (3) the fuel price/tax series and industrial fuel prices as of October 1984 for countries of the Western Hemisphere.
- OSTI ID:
- 6368017
- Journal Information:
- Energy Detente; (United States), Vol. 5:22
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
ASPHALTS
PRICES
COAL
NATURAL GAS
PETROLEUM
REFINING
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
PETROLEUM REFINERIES
PROFITS
IMPORTS
OPEC
SPOT MARKET
STATISTICAL DATA
TAXES
BITUMENS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
DATA
ENERGY SOURCES
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL GAS
FUELS
GAS FUELS
GASES
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
INFORMATION
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
MARKET
MATERIALS
NUMERICAL DATA
OIL-EXPORTING COUNTRIES
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PROCESSING
TAR
020700* - Petroleum- Economics
Industrial
& Business Aspects
020400 - Petroleum- Processing
294002 - Energy Planning & Policy- Petroleum