The new 650-Mb/d Dangote refinery in Nigeria instantly became Africa’s largest and the world’s seventh-largest by capacity when it finally began processing crude into diesel and aviation fuels in January after years of delays and cost overruns. Long touted as Nigeria’s ticket to ending refined fuels imports by supplying its own markets — with plenty to spare for exports — the Dangote facility could substantially impact trade flows and global supply if it lives up to years of homegrown ballyhoo. In today’s RBN blog, we will examine Dangote’s long road to production, and why we see a slow ramp-up to full capacity through 2026.
One of the most anticipated and potentially impactful refinery startups in North America in years is the Dos Bocas project (officially the Olmeca Refinery), a 340 Mb/d plant under development by Mexico’s state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) in the southeastern state of Tabasco. The project was seen as the cornerstone of Pemex’s plans to reduce Mexico’s dependence on the U.S. for refined fuels. Construction began in 2019 with startup originally scheduled for 2022, but that timeline was never really feasible, and the Mexican government has issued multiple public statements since mid-2023 proclaiming that construction was complete and startup was imminent. However, almost a year has passed and there is no indication that any meaningful operations have occurred. So how close is Dos Bocas to startup and, more importantly, full (or close to full) production? In today’s RBN blog, we’ll provide our views on those vitally important questions.
On Monday, September 3, 2007, dignitaries and thousands of Panamanian citizens watched a huge explosion level a hill near Paraiso, a village north of Panama City. That day launched work on a project that would eventually cost more than $6 billion (U.S.) to double the capacity of the Panama Canal and allow for the passage of longer and wider ships. Nearly nine years later on June 26, 2016, the expansion is finally scheduled to be open for business. The new canal capacity will be a major event in global energy markets, especially for growing volumes of U.S. natural gas, liquified petroleum gas (LPG) and petroleum product exports. In honor of this historic development, RBN will take you there! Rusty will be traversing the canal this Thursday, April 14th and will have the skinny on what is happening in Panama right now, with pictures to show for it. In today’s blog we set the stage for our voyage across the Panamanian Isthmus.
One goal of the RBN blogosphere is to provide clarity to a highly intricate, interwoven energy complex. Today we are going to tackle an aspect of energy markets that has vexed us for some time. We’re going to explore some of the big numbers that are used to measure energy markets, what they mean to the oil patch (Cowtown, a.k.a., Fort Worth here in Texas is a good example of that) and to each of us as energy users. So put on your thinking cap and tell your colleagues to leave you alone for five minutes. We’re going to expand our minds.
