The quality of some California-origin petroleum cokes has shifted in recent months as an influx of Canadian crude shipping via the TMX pipeline has adjusted refiner's crude slates and displaced imports from Latin America and the Middle East.
Coke output at PBF Energy's 156,400 b/d Martinez, California, refinery has risen in sulphur content over recent months as the refinery has tripled imports of heavy Canadian crude, reportedly replacing some domestic crude that produces lower sulphur coke. This California crude is heard to now be moving to other refineries, including Phillips 66's 139,000 b/d Carson, California, refinery — typically a 4.5pc sulphur coke producer — where coke output has been trending lower in sulphur content.
California's Canadian crude imports from January-July totalled 16.9mn bl, more than double the level imported in the same period last year, according to the latest US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data. Canadian crude accounted for 9pc of California's crude imports in the first seven months, up from 4pc in the same period the year prior. The state's imports of Canadian crude in June and July, the first two months of full TMX operations, were up nearly fivefold on the year.
PBF's Martinez imported 676,000 bl of Canadian crude from June-July, more than quadruple the amount in the same two months of of 2023. Additionally, the sulphur content of Martinez's Canadian crude imports was significantly higher on the year, averaging 1.4pc compared with 0.6pc in June-July 2023. At the same time, the refiner also increased sour Ecuadorian crude imports by 95pc on the year. Martinez's crude imports had an average sulphur content of 1.3pc in June-July, up from 0.9pc a year prior.
The refinery's coke was recently heard to be reaching more than 2.5pc sulphur compared with less than 2pc previously.
On the other hand, Phillips 66's Carson refinery's coke quality was recently heard to be around or even below 3pc sulphur, down from its typical 4.5pc, even as it increased its Canadian crude imports to over 1mn bl in June-July, up from none in the same period last year. Carson's Canadian crude imports' sulphur content in June-July averaged 2.6pc, with the refinery's overall crude imports reaching an average of 1.4pc sulphur, down from 1.7pc in the same two months in 2023.
Carson also did not import any sour Saudi Arabian crude in June-July, compared with 2.4mn bl in the same period last year, and it dropped sour Mexican-origin crude imports in the same two months by 26pc on the year.
At the same time, Carson increased purchases of sweet Guyanese crude to 1.5mn bl — reaching a third of the refinery's crude imports — compared with none in June-July 2023.
But Carson and Martinez's coke sulphur content may soon increase as TMX crude becomes more common on the US west coast, market participants said. This could leave Asian buyers searching for 2pc and 4.5pc sulphur cokes to substitute the material they had previously sourced from the US west coast.
