Marathon Petroleum is selling a pair of inland refineries — the 105-Mb/d St. Paul Park refinery in Minnesota and the 72-Mb/d Mandan refinery in North Dakota — to CVR Energy. Today, we look at why major refiners are increasingly pointing their investment dollars toward the Gulf Coast.
Two vehicles may look identical from the outside, but what’s under the hood can make all the difference. Today, we look at how the same principle applies to crude oil, as barrels that meet the same basic specifications can still behave very differently once they reach a refinery.
Weekly Canadian refinery crude oil runs saw a dip in July, but had since recovered (see red line in left chart below), according to weekly data through August 4.
Louisiana’s refineries process vast amounts of domestic crude oil — much of it from the offshore U.S. Gulf — and imported oil from Canada and other countries. The refineries also play a critically important role in supplying refined product to the Southeastern U.S and the Mid-Atlantic states.
Crude oil — often mistakenly described as a single, standardized commodity — is anything but uniform. Every stream has its own chemical fingerprint, including differences in density and sulfur content. Today, we’ll dig into why crude quality matters and how it can make a real difference to the bottom line.
Each of Louisiana’s three refining regions has its own sources for crude oil and its own way of delivering that oil to refineries. Today, we look at crude oil flows and supply/demand balances in the southwestern and northwestern parts of the Bayou State — and how the status quo may be in for changes.
Crude oil sourcing for the three refining regions in Louisiana couldn’t be more different from each other. In today’s RBN blog, we examine crude oil flows into and out of the Bayou State, assess supply/demand balances, and explore why is could be increasingly important to understand those balances.
Louisiana refineries don’t pipe in all the crude oil they need from the Houston and Nederland areas or the U.S. Gulf, or ship it in from abroad. Some depend on crude that is piped in from Longview, TX, and others get at least some of their oil from Capline, which moves crude south from Illinois.
The sourcing of crude oil for the 14 refineries in Louisiana has been shifting over the past few years and the pace of that shift is picking up as more U.S. Gulf production flows to Texas (and less flows to the Bayou State), new pipeline projects come online, and refineries modify their crude slates.
The price of the D4 Renewable Identification Number (RIN) has increased by 130% so far in 2026, accompanied by a 60% increase in the price of soybean oil and other renewable feedstocks. Today’s blog gives a high-level view of what is behind this year’s bull run in the D4 RIN and related commodities.
