US refiner PBF Energy is looking to a handful of projects to improve its already strong position for meeting new International Maritime Organization (IMO) marine fuel regulations that start on 1 January.
PBF plans to restart a coker at its 190,000 b/d Chalmette, Louisiana, refinery, and will build a hydrogen plant at its 190,000 b/d Delaware City, Delaware, refinery to reduce sulphur content, said PBF senior economist Carl Ellett at the Argus Fuel Oil Summit in Miami, Florida.
PBF's current cokers allow it to process high-sulphur crude and intermediate feedstocks, so it can produce IMO 2020-compliant fuels without additional capital investment. Its coking capacity as a percentage of crude throughput is 18pc, second only to Phillips 66 in the US, Ellet said.
A less-complex refinery, with more than 15pc high-sulphur fuel oil yield, would lose its profit margins, Ellett said.
PBF estimates global demand for residual fuel oil at about 6.7mn b/d, of which a little more than half is for bunkering. About 2mn b/d of high-sulphur residual fuel oil will be replaced by 0.5pc sulphur fuel oil and marine gasoil (MGO) demand, according to Ellet.
Treated vacuum gasoil, cycle oils and slurries are the best fits for low-sulphur bunker use because of their suitable API gravity, viscosity and flash point, Ellett said. They are also less expensive compared with distillates. Gasoil is expensive but may be necessary in the absence of local options.
