The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved a request by governors from eight Corn Belt states to remove a summertime waiver for Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) included in the Clean Air Act (CAA) for E10 gasoline, a 90/10 blend of petroleum-derived gasoline blendstock and ethanol. The motive for the governors’ request was a desire to increase sales of E15 gasoline and, by extension, boost ethanol/corn demand by putting it on the same summertime footing as E10. In granting the approval, the EPA conceded that the distribution system wasn’t ready for the change. In today’s RBN blog, we look at the decision and the impact it will have on refiners, retailers and drivers, and how it is likely to work against the Biden administration’s plans to keep a lid on gasoline prices.
RVP
Normal butane is an important gasoline blendstock, with a great combination of high octane and relatively low cost. It also has a high Reid vapor pressure, or RVP, which is a good news/bad news kind of thing because while regulators allow higher-RVP gasoline — that is, gasoline with higher levels of butane — to be sold during the colder months of the year, they forbid its sale during the warmer months, thereby forcing butane levels in gasoline to be kept to a minimum. As we discuss in today’s RBN blog, air-quality regulations and seasonal shifts in butane blending may add complexity to gasoline production and marketing, but they also create opportunities to increase gasoline supply and earn substantially larger profits through much of the year.
At first glance, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal to facilitate increased sales of E15 — an 85/15 blend of gasoline blendstock and ethanol — by putting it on the same summertime regulatory footing as commonly available E10 in eight Midwest/Great Plains states might seem like a boon to corn farmers and ethanol producers. But as we discuss in today’s RBN blog, there are a number of economic, practical and even psychological barriers to broadened public access to — and use of — E15 that go well beyond the specific regulatory issue the EPA proposal addresses. As a result, as we see it, EPA’s plan is unlikely to boost E15 demand in any meaningful way, at least for now.
Alkylate is an important and valuable part of the U.S. gasoline pool, prized for its high octane, low volatility and low sulfur content. There are two primary catalysts that refiners can opt to use in the production of alkylate: hydrofluoric acid, or HF, and sulfuric acid, or H2SO4. Each is quite popular, with HF and sulfuric acid technologies each representing about half of domestic alkylation capacity — and with those shares varying significantly on a regional basis. While refiners have been safely operating both types of “alky” units for many decades, HF alkylation for some time has been in the crosshairs of the Environmental Protection Agency, which recently proposed that refiners be required to undertake extensive evaluations of potentially safer alternative technologies. It’s hard to know for sure, but if EPA’s proposed rule is made final it could ultimately force many refineries to make very costly changes — into the hundreds of million dollars per unit — or maybe even shut down entirely. In today’s RBN blog, we look at alkylate, how it’s made, and the potentially profound effects of the impending regulation.
If you’ve filled up the tank in your car, SUV, or pickup in the past few days, you probably bought your first batch of winter-blend gasoline since the spring. It’s unlikely that you noticed a difference — only a refining geek with a nose for this sort of thing would — but winter gasoline has a higher Reid Vapor Pressure than summer gasoline, and therefore evaporates more quickly and emits more fumes. There’s a logic to EPA’s mandated switchover from lower-RVP gasoline to higher-RVP gasoline each September, and their switch back to lower-RVP each April/May. For one thing, using different gasoline blends during the colder and warmer months helps ensure that your engine runs well year-round; for another, reducing gasoline vapor pressure in the summer reduces emissions that contribute to smog. Today, we discuss gasoline RVP, why it matters, and how refineries ramp it up and down. (A hint is in the blog’s title.)
It hasn’t been widely reported, but during cold snaps in late fall and early winter, a number of crude oil producers in the Permian Basin have faced a “perfect storm” of events that made it challenging to meet crude pipelines’ vapor pressure standards. At first glance, this may seem like a problem for “the technical folks” to deal with, but in fact the issue has been affecting the ability to move crude to market, and the price of oil at Midland, TX versus the crude hub at Cushing, OK. It has even forced Permian producers to “shut in” some crude production—at least for a time—along several major pipelines in the region because they’ve been unable to adequately prepare their crude for piping or trucking. Today we examine an under-the-radar problem that’s been vexing producers in the U.S.’s leading crude oil play, and affecting oil prices and markets.
Just over a week ago (July 3rd) Reuters reported that Enterprise Product Partners (EPD) sold their first 400 MBbl export cargo of condensate to Japanese trader Mitsui. That export follows private letters from the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) to Enterprise and Pioneer that represent a change in the government’s interpretation of 40-year-old legislation banning the export of unprocessed crude and condensate from the US. The apparent relaxation of the rules could open up export opportunities for shale producers – especially in the wet gas / condensate window of the Eagle Ford in South Texas. Today in the first of a two part series we describe existing stabilizer capacity and export routes to market in the Eagle Ford.
Alkylate is a valuable blending component that accounts for about 12 percent of the US gasoline pool. Alkylate is manufactured by combining elements derived from NGLs and crude oil refining and is an important link between these two hydrocarbon markets. Alkylate has critical qualities required to meet complex modern gasoline quality specifications. Today we look at the qualities and manufacture of alkylate.