Tampa: Fourth-quarter Tampa contract speculation firmed slightly last week, with more market chatter centered on a potential $10/lt or larger increase from the $69.55/lt third-quarter contract.
International strength fueled market players’ bullish notions, although some intimated that U.S. Gulf exports failing to keep pace with Pacific-market sellers through the fourth quarter could limit the Tampa market’s upside.
Settlement talks will begin “post-New Year,” sources confirmed.
A fire reported at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions Inc. (PES) refinery in Philadelphia on Dec. 10 was extinguished in about an hour, local news outlets reported. While PES referred to the fire as a “small operations upset,” it was not immediately clear whether production had been impacted at the 335,000 barrel/d facility. The refinery announced a planned shutdown of an 18,000 barrel/d alkylation unit on Dec. 1.
PES is the East Coast’s largest refinery. Protesting a dearth of information provided to nearby residents regarding the fire, a group of demonstrators briefly blocked vehicle access to the refinery on Dec. 12.
Refinery capacity utilization ticked higher for the week, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data. Refiners employed 90.5 percent of capacity for the week ending Dec. 9, a 0.1 percent increase from the prior week’s 90.4 percent. The rate fell shy of both the year-ago 91.9 percent and five-year average of 91.8 percent, however, and represented the lowest second-week December utilization number since 85.1 percent was logged on Dec. 9, 2011.
Average daily crude inputs rose to 16.474 million barrels/d, a 57,000 barrel/d increase from the previous week’s 16.417 million barrels/d.
U.S. Gulf: The Phillips 66 refinery at Borger, Texas, suffered a fluid catalytic cracking unit shutdown on Dec. 11, according to a notice filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
The shutdown was triggered by an emissions surge exceeding allowable levels. A restart begun on Dec. 11 could require multiple days to complete, sources speculated. The Borger refinery is rated at 146,000 barrel/d capacity.
Marathon Petroleum Corp. reported a brief outage at its Galveston Bay, Texas, refinery on Dec. 13. Operations at the 459,000 barrel/d facility were back to normal on Dec. 14.
Last-done on the Gulf prill market was quoted in the $70-$71/mt FOB range, unmoved from the previous report. Some speculated that international market firming would trickle down to the Gulf market in the next round of business.
Vancouver: Recent Vancouver sales levels registered netbacks in the $85-$88/mt FOB range, market players said. Observers traced the levels to the strengthening Chinese import market, where last-done trades were generally called $101-$106/mt CFR.
Alberta producer netbacks continued to be quoted in a range of (-)$55-$20/mt FOB, encompassing both contract molten sales into the U.S. and prilled sulfur sold on the Vancouver export market.
Intense polar cold has hindered sulfur transported by rail in recent weeks, sources said. “Railroads are having difficulty keeping up with the forming plant production,” said one observer.
West Coast: Formed sulfur offered from the West Coast followed Vancouver higher to $80-$85/mt FOB, sources said. The market was last called in the $75-$80/mt FOB range.
Molten sulfur contracts were valued at $50-$75/lt FOB for the fourth quarter.