Archives Mensuelles: juillet 2013
Shell earnings fall 13% in second quarter
Shell has posted a 13 percent drop in second quarter earnings to $5.7bn as weaker oil and gas prices hit profits at the Anglo-Dutch energy group. Earnings on a current cost of supply basis, which strip out oil price fluctuations, were $5.7bn in the three months to the end of June, compared with $6.6bn a […]
BP reports drop in second quarter income
BP reported that its income for the second quarter was $2.7 billion after adjustments for inventory changes and one-off items, a 25 percent decline compared to the previous year and substantially below analysts’ consensus. The company said lower oil prices, declining earnings in Russia and higher tax rates all had a negative impact on its […]
Saudi divergences on crude production strategy
Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal told Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi in an open letter that the kingdom won’t be able to raise production capacity to 15 million barrels of crude a day as planned, and that he disagrees with him over the impact of U.S. shale gas output. The prince published the letter today on […]
Colombia’s extraordinary oil boom
Starting in July, 140,000 barrels per day will course through the Bicentenario pipeline which is crucial to meet the country’s oil production that has surged 80 percent in seven years. Fully complete by 2016, the 960-kilometre pipeline will transport 600,000 bpd of mostly heavy Colombian blends by 2016 to the U.S. Gulf Coast refineries and […]
The refining process: Cracking
Cracking processes break down heavier hydrocarbon molecules (high boiling point oils) into lighter products such as petrol and diesel. These processes include catalytic cracking, thermal cracking and hydrocracking. Catalytic cracking is used to convert heavy hydrocarbon fractions obtained by vacuum distillation into a mixture of more useful products such as petrol and light fuel oil. […]
The refining process: Reforming
Reforming is a process which uses heat, pressure and a catalyst (usually containing platinum) to bring about chemical reactions which upgrade naphthas into high octane petrol and petrochemical feedstock. The naphthas are hydrocarbon mixtures containing many paraffins and naphthenes. This naphtha feedstock can come from the crudes oil distillation or catalytic cracking processes and from […]
The refining process: Distillation
Every refinery begins with the separation of crude oil into different fractions by distillation. The fractions are further treated to convert them into mixtures of more useful saleable products by various methods such as cracking, reforming, alkylation, polymerisation and isomerisation. These mixtures of new compounds are then separated using methods such as fractionation and solvent […]
Refining of petroleum: Introduction
Petroleum is a complex mixture of organic liquids called crude oil and natural gas, which occurs naturally in the ground and was formed millions of years ago. Crude oil varies from oilfield to oilfield in colour and composition, from a pale yellow low viscosity liquid to heavy black ‘treacle’ consistencies. Crude oil and natural gas […]
oil & gas logistics 