Valero: US refiners set to export to West Africa

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/valero-us-refiners-set-to-export-to-west-africa-2012-05-24

By Ben Lefebvre

HOUSTON -(MarketWatch)- U.S. refiners will soon expand their growing fuel export business to include gasoline sales to West Africa, Valero Energy Corp.'s /quotes/zigman/186158/quotes/nls/vlo VLO -1.50% Chief Executive Bill Klesse said Thursday.

U.S. refiners have been able to process the discounted oil and natural gas available from the U.S. energy boom into fuels priced below those made by foreign competitors. The domestic energy boom has helped revive businesses in an industry that had been living on razor-thin margins for years.

Even as domestic fuel demand remains flat because of higher vehicle fuel efficiency and a lagging economy, demand has grown for U.S gasoline in Latin America and diesel in Europe. The U.S. will soon be able to export gasoline to West Africa, Klesse said.

"You will see gasoline move to West Africa from the Gulf Coast," Klesse told an audience at the UBS Global Oil and Gas Conference. "That's something we haven't seen before."

Valero, the largest independent refiner in the U.S., will increase its diesel production to about 40% of total fuel output to take advantage of foreign demand, Klesse said.

"We continue to see distillates exported into the marketplace, and the world is paying up," Klesse said.

U.S. fuel net exports averaged 840,00 barrels a day for the first three weeks of May, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That compares to net imports of 464,000 barrels a day during the same time last year.

Increasing U.S. production of light, sweet crude oil in south Texas and North Dakota has pushed down raw material costs for refiners. Domestic oil production will eliminate the need for imports of light, sweet crude into the U.S. Gulf Coast by the beginning of 2014, Klesse said. That's a year earlier than most analysts have forecast.

"The oil is coming, and it's coming significantly," Klesse said.

U.S. refiners are also benefiting from low prices of natural gas, which they use to make fuel blendstocks. Natural gas prices have sunk to a decade-low as the boom in production has created a massive supply surplus.

The low price in natural gas has helped the U.S. refining industry defend itself even as mega-refineries topping 1 million barrels a day of production are built in Asia. Although Reliance Industries Ltd. in India and other mega-refineries have a huge advantage in production scale, they pay much higher prices for natural gas and oil than their U.S. competitors, Klesse said.

"Everyone was concerned that Reliance was going to swamp us," Klesse said. "That hasn't happened. The competitive advantage of natural gas is absolutely huge."

Oil workers convicted in Kazakh court

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-04/ghana-oil-rises-to-record-high-as-akorli-named-md-accra-mover.html

By Moses Mozart Dzawu

Ghana Oil Company Ltd. (GOIL), the West African nation’s second-biggest operator of gasoline stations, rose to the highest on record as the board of the company appointed Patrick Akpe Kwame Akorli as managing director.

The stock gained 4.3 percent to 49 pesewas as of 2 p.m. in Accra, the capital, the highest since it began trading in November 2007. Akorli, formerly finance manager at the company also known as Goil, was named to the MD position effective immediately, the company said in a statement e-mailed by the Ghana Stock Exchange on June 1.

“Investors have been looking for a stable management for a while now,” Nana Kofi Agyeman Gyamfi, a stock trader at Merban Stockbrokers Ltd. in Accra, said by phone today. “They are happy with the fact that somebody from the firm, who has knowledge about the business and the industry, was appointed to the helm of affairs.”

Akorli has worked for 10 years at Goil and has 15 years of experience in the industry, Gyamfi said.
Goil has been without a permanent managing director since the retirement of Yaw Agyemang-Duah in July 2011.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201206040136.html

By Damilola Oyedele

Crude oil exports from Nigeria to the United States rose to $34 billion in the year 2011; from $31 billion and $19 billion in 2010 and 2009 respectively.

Within the same period, the figures for non-oil export rose from $101 million in 2009 to $115 million and $150 million in 2010 and 2011 respectively.

These figures were presented by the Economic Counsellor of the US Embassy, Mr. Perry Ball, at a recent media briefing held in Abuja.

He also added that the success of the amnesty programme of late President Yar'Adua was responsible for the rise after production dropped due to the restiveness in the Niger Delta region.
He added that the global economic downturn accompanied by drop in oil prices caused the oil export figures to drop from $35 billion in 2008 to $19 billion in 2009.

Briefing on the benefits of African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) for Nigerian businesses, Ball advocated that small and medium business owners can liaise with big companies in Nigeria or in the US to participate in exports to the US especially for non oil exports.

The benefits of AGOA, he outlined, include the provision of duty free treatment for 1,800 products in addition to the standard 4,600 products available to non-AGOA countries.

Exports from sub-Saharan Africa in 2011 amounted to $74.2 billion, he said with Nigeria topping the list with $33.7 billion mainly from crude oil sales and Chad at the bottom of the list with $3.1 billion also from crude oil sales.

It also provides an additional preference in the form of duty free/quota free access for apparel made from fabric originating anywhere in the world under a special rule for lesser developed beneficiary countries with per capita GNP of under $1,500.

Ball disclosed that over 300,000 jobs have been created in Africa since the creation of AGOA in 2000; many of these jobs for women in the textile industry. It has also encouraged the export of non mineral products to the US, he added.

Since its enactment, two-way trade under AGOA has grown to $82.1 billion in 2010 and AGOA exports to United States have increased to $44.3 billion.

The official annual AGOA Forum which would hold in Washington in June, 2012 would bring together senior US administration officials, African government ministers as well as US and African businesses and civil society stakeholders from AGOA eligible countries.

U.S. DOE Weekly Petroleum Status Report for May 25

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-31/u-s-doe-weekly-petroleum-status-report-for-may-25-text-.html

By Stephen Rose

Following is the text of the weekly Petroleum Status Report from the U.S. Department of Energy:
U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged just under 15.2 million barrels per day during the week ending May 25, 182 thousand barrels per day above the previous week’s average. Refineries operated at 89.1 percent of their operable capacity last week. Gasoline production increased last week, averaging about 9.2 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased last week, averaging 4.6 million barrels per day.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged about 9.1 million barrels per day last week, up by 473 thousand barrels per day from the previous week. Over the last four weeks, crude oil imports have averaged about 8.9 million barrels per day, 199 thousand barrels per day below the same four-week period last year. Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 796 thousand barrels per day. Distillate fuel imports averaged 71 thousand barrels per day last week.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) increased by 2.2 million barrels from the previous week. At 384.7 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year. Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 0.8 million barrels last week and are below the lower limit of the average range. Finished gasoline inventories decreased while blending components inventories remained unchanged last week. Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 1.7 million barrels last week and are in the lower limit of the average range for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories increased by 1.6 million barrels last week and are above the upper limit of the average range. Total commercial petroleum inventories increased by 5.5 million barrels last week.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period have averaged about 18.7 million barrels per day, down by 0.1 percent compared to the similar period last year. Over the last four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied has averaged just under 8.9 million barrels per day, down by 2.6 percent from the same period last year. Distillate fuel product supplied has averaged about 3.8 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, down by 1.0 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied is 0.7 percent lower over the last four weeks compared to the same four-week period last year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Rose in Washington at srose31@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Marco Babic at mbabic@bloomberg.net

Nigeria's rusting shipwreck problem

Shell to Exit Libya

http://www.petroleumafrica.com/en/newsarticle.php?NewsID=13648

While many companies have returned to Libya since the ouster and subsequent death of long-time leader Muammar Qaddafi, one company is exiting, Royal Dutch Shell. Shell is the first company to announce its exit from the North African country.

Shell "intends to suspend and abandon drilled wells and stop exploration in [its] Libyan licenses," a company spokesman said in a Dow Jones Newswires report.

Despite its exit Shell insists that is still interested in the country however, it also said that its exploration results prior to the outbreak of hostilities were less than encouraging. "Results [prior to the war] have been disappointing and further exploration cannot be economically justified," the spokesman said.
The news of Shell’s exit comes at the same time as BP reports that it will resume its exploration activities in the country.