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ExxonMobil Plans to Expand Its Refineries

By Joe Carroll
Bloomberg
CHICAGO -- ExxonMobil, the world's biggest oil refiner, and rivals such as Saudi Aramco and Total plan at least $11 billion of refinery additions as worldwide demand pushes gasoline prices to a record.

The projects include a $4.3 billion refinery and chemical plant on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast by Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical. ExxonMobil, Aramco and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, China's largest refiner, are spending $3.5 billion to triple the size of an oil refinery and build a chemical plant in Fujian province.

The expansion, following two decades of reduced spending because of low prices that cut profits, reflects surging demand that is raising the cost of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and heating oil. Gasoline futures, which are based on wholesale prices, rose 3.8 percent last week to $1.5755 per gallon in New York (41 cents per liter), the highest since they began trading in 1984.

Refining "was for so long a poor business," said Mark Baxter, director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, who was an engineer at Marathon Oil for 28 years. "There's a dire need for expansion," he said in an interview last week.

Fuel prices have increased more than the cost of crude oil from which they are derived, making oil company refinery profits grow faster from producing and selling oil and gas, even as crude prices touched an all-time peak of $57.60 last Thursday in New York.

The average U.S. retail gasoline price reached an all-time high of $2.061 per gallon (54 cents per liter) on Friday, according to AAA, the former American Automobile Association, in Heathrow, Florida.

Prices at the pump will average $2.15 per gallon from April through September, when warm weather and summer vacations usually push American demand to a peak, the U.S. Energy Department said in a March 8 forecast.

"Prices for gasoline at the pump are being dragged up by demand and a lack of refining capacity in the U.S. and worldwide to meet that demand," Baxter said.

High fuel prices contributed to $9.18 billion in losses last year for the 10 biggest U.S. airlines and prompted Fort Worth, Texas-based Burlington Northern Santa Fe and other railroads to impose surcharges on freight deliveries to cover higher diesel costs. Concern that higher energy costs may boost inflation has helped stall stock market gains, with the Standard & Poor's 500 Index of U.S. stocks falling 1.9 percent in the past two weeks.

The $11 billion of new refinery projects, announced by oil companies during the past 10 months, will be spread out over the next six years. They are in addition to continuing spending on repairs and expansions, which was $11.9 billion last year among the seven largest publicly traded oil companies.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/storie...03/22/255.html

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