Posted on 10/31/2013 8:47:58 PM PDT by TexGrill
Oct 31 (Reuters) - Indonesia is looking to build a new 300,000-barrels-per-day (bpd) state-owned refinery to reduce its dependence on imported fuels, a government official said on Thursday.
Indonesia now has about 1 million bpd of refining capacity that meets about two-thirds of its demand, meaning it has to import more than 500,000 bpd of fuel products to fill the gap.
The country is conducting a feasibility study it hopes to complete by next year on the new refinery, said Yusef Kartiwa Caryana, deputy director of the oil and gas storage and business development division at Indonesia's energy and mineral resources ministry.
The refinery, to be government-funded and operated by Pertamina, would likely be located in East Java or Sumatra and might come online by 2021, he said during the Singapore International Energy Week.
Indonesia would likely source crude from Iraq, with whom it already has an oil supply agreement, Caryana said.
FUEL PRICES
The country is also considering raising fuel prices next year, though this will depend on the political regime, he said.
Indonesia holds presidential elections in 2014, and fuel prices are a hot political issue, with increases often being met by protests and demonstrations across the country.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Seems like a good idea (the refinery) to me.
Of course, that assumes the refined fuel will stay in Indonesia and relieve the shortfall, rather than be exported to more profitable markets. Export profit is good, but won’t relieve domestic shortages.
300K bpd = big refinery. Asia has some much larger but only a handful of US refineries are much larger.
The last refinery that was built in the US was 1976.
When was the last refinery built in the United States?
There were a total of 143 operable petroleum refineries in the United States as of January 1, 2013.
The “newest” refinery in the United States began operating in 2008 in Douglas, Wyoming. However, the newest refinery with atmospheric distillation capacity greater than 100,000 barrels per day began operating in 1977 in Garyville, Louisiana.
Ground was broken in March 2013 for construction of a new refinery in North Dakota. The 20,000-barrel-per-day (bbl/d) Dakota Prairie facility is scheduled to be built in 20 months.
Capacity has also been added to existing refineries through upgrades or new construction. The most recent examples include:
In 2012, Motiva upgraded its refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, making it the largest refinery in the U.S. with a capacity of 600,250 barrels per calendar day.
In 2009, Marathon upgraded its Garyville, Louisiana refinery. As of January 1, 2013, the capacity is more than double its original 1977 capacity.
At the link below, is a list of the newest refineries in the US, 12 of which were built after 1976.
http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=29&t=6
The US refines more product that we use ourselves. We do not have a refinery shortage.
How did they slip those 12 by the EPA???
I admit they are small. But we have effectively added several major refineries through our upgrades and expansions of the existing refineries.
We do not have a refinery shortage. We import more crude oil than we need. We refine the surplus and export that amount for a positive trade balance. (positive on the surplus, not the total)
From what I have read in the past refineries have been at 98% of capacity. Maybe that was before 2008.
I know we are importing more than we need and much of that excess is being sent to other countries.
Typically, refineries run at or very near capacity. All the pumps, pipes, vessels, heaters etc are designed for a flow rate. Running lower than that point is inefficient; it cost the refiner more per barrel processed. They don't do it unless there are problems.
What we see in percent capacity runs of an industry are mostly from individual refineries shutdown, either planned maintenance and/or expansion/upgrades or unplanned problems.
Thanks for clearing that up. But then I have another question.
If for some weird reason the economy grew significantly enough to increase the demand for gasoline and diesel would our refining capacity be up to the task of meeting it?
It comes down to how much, how fast.
We are borderline on the gasoline side. Our refineries are optimized to produce a greater ratio of gasoline to diesel than is typical in the rest of the world. But we still consume in a greater gasoline/diesel ratio than we produce.
We could grow the diesel market and meet it domestically by exporting less. Not so much on the gasoline side.
And a lot of our net exports are what I have called refinery left-overs, the residual heavy oil and petroleum coke that is not economically broken farther down to gasoline/diesel.
Considering that the Feds are going to have the minimum mpg rating for newly manufactured cars go up to 35.5 mpg by 2016 and then up to 54.5mpg by 2025, I can see diesel having a bigger part of the market in the near future.
Yep
More Diesels Coming Stateside to Help Meet CAFE Standards
http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/best-cars-blog/2013/02/More_Diesels_Coming_Stateside_to_help_meet_CAFE_Standards/
and...
Turbocharging Is Taking Over. Get Used To It.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimhenry/2013/10/30/turbocharging-is-taking-over-get-used-to-it/
Yeppers.
Honda might go the route of making all of their cars hydrogen-fueled which they are testing now in SoCal.
I’m hoping that whenever cold fusion is commercialized Honda will use that in their generation of cars after hydrogen.
But diesel works. In Germany, VW manufactured a car, from ‘98 to ‘05 called the Lupo that go 70 to 78mpg.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Lupo
I don’t see hydrogen becoming a fuel for residential type transportation. Too expensive a fuel source.
Honda has their Natural Gas powered Civic growing in popularity.
- - - - - -
whenever cold fusion is commercialized...
In vehicles? I don’t see that happening. If real, you are talking about a nuclear heat source for a steam generation of a turbine?
Honda is testing their hydrogen-powered car, called the FCX Clarity, right now in SoCal. They sold 200 of them at $50K a pop. They plan on selling them starting between 2015 and 2020. But they’ll need the infrastructure in place in order to do so.
Those natural gas-powered Civics are great because of the low cost of the fuel but when the Feds start regulating...
Yes, commercialized cold fusion in vehicles. I don’t see it happening for at least the next 20 years. It is real but the scientists studying it can’t explain why it works, how it works, or how to make it work consistently. But it does work.
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