Demand For Oil Products Research Articles

Advances in Upgrading Process of Petroleum Residue: A Review

Due to the depletion of light crude oil reserves, heavy crude oil and residues are the alternatives to meet ?the ?increasing global demand for light oil products. Heavy crude oil and residues are characterized by the presence of heavy ?hydrocarbon ?compounds which contain high levels of impurities such as metals, nitrogen, and sulfur-containing compounds. ?Methods of ?upgrading are required to increase refining efficiencies and to obtain high-quality products.? Upgrading processes can be categorized into three categories; ?carbon rejection processes, hydrogen addition processes, and a combination of the two. The catalyst can be used with any of these processes for better improvement. Many types of research have been carried out to develop a high-performance process which is stable, high commercial products yield, and low solids formation. In this work, recent advances on petroleum residues upgrading with catalyst, solvents, and thermal cracking were reviewed. Advantages and disadvantages of each process were discussed along with conditions and main features. Nanoparticles catalysts and supercritical fluids based-processes are the trends of upgrading due to the excellent performance of these processes.

Projection of fossil fuel demands in Vietnam to 2050 and climate change implications

AbstractOver the past decade, Vietnam has emerged as one of the world's fastest growing economies. Fossil fuel use, which is a dominant energy source and vital for economic growth, have been increasing considerably. Undoubtedly, the projection of fossil fuel demand is essential for a better understanding of energy needs, fuel mix, and Vietnam's strategic development. This paper provides an outlook for coal, oil, and gas demand in Vietnam to 2050. The projection is based on the calibrated results from a hybrid model (that combines a GTAP‐ R version for resources, and a micro simulation approach) and an energy database. Under the baseline scenario (business as usual), from 2018 to 2050, the demand for coal, oil products, and gas are expected to increase by a factor of 2.47‐fold, 2.14‐fold, and 1.67‐fold, respectively. Emissions are also projected to increase. Because fossil fuels are the dominant source of carbon emissions in Vietnam, it follows, going forward, that an effective fuel‐mix strategy that encourages the development of renewables and energy efficiency is essential.

Long-term beef production from pastures established with and without annual crops compared with native savanna in the Eastern Plains of Colombia: A compilation and analysis of on-farm results 1979‒2016

The Eastern Plains of Colombia (“Llanos”) are made up of acid soils with low nutrient concentrations covered by tropical savannas, but they constitute a very important land resource for the country. The Llanos have traditionally supported extensive beef cattle production systems but are increasingly in demand for food, feed and oil production. The establishment of improved tropical pastures is a continuing trend as a means of intensifying beef production. Published data and the authors’ own on-farm databases were collated and analyzed to estimate commercial cattle weight gains. A total of 198 records representing pastures directly drilled into native savanna and pastures undersown with rain-fed upland rice and maize were available for the 1979‒2016 period, and were compared with savanna-based beef production. Records were available for sown paddocks 1‒15 years in age that were managed solely by ranchers or by consensus between ranchers and researchers. Performance was not affected by who made the management decisions. Pastures sown in association with maize largely out-yielded all others, but observations on these paddocks were restricted to only 3 years and there was a steep fall in production with age. Differences between conventionally established and rice-associated pastures decreased rapidly over time, and production from these pastures did not differ over the longer term. Pasture age and stocking rate during the rainy season were the major factors influencing output from all systems. Overall, adjusted, long-term weight gains per year ranged between 11 and 386 kg/ha for savanna and maize undersown pastures. The data suggest a need to document long-term planned, regular, crop-pasture rotations, but none was available. The analyses provide valuable, long-term estimates of realized beef production under commercial conditions that should assist in decision-making by graziers and policy makers.

The Effect of the Surface Area of Carbon Black Grades on HNBR in Harsh Environments.

Concerning the still rising demand for oil and gas products, the development of new reliable materials to guarantee the facility safety at extreme operating conditions is an utmost necessity. The present study mainly deals with the influence of different carbon black (CB) filled hydrogenated nitrile butadiene rubber (HNBR), which is a material usually used in sealing applications, on the rapid gas decompression (RGD) resistance in harsh environments. Therefore, RGD component level tests were conducted in an autoclave. The supporting mechanical and dynamic mechanical property analysis, the microscopic level investigations on the material and failure analysis were conducted and are discussed in this work. Under the tested conditions, the samples filled with smaller CB primary particles showed a slightly lower volume increase during the compression and decompression phases; however, they steered to a significantly lower resistance to RGD. Transmission electron micrographs revealed that the samples filled with smaller CB particles formed larger structures as well as densified filler networks including larger agglomerates and as a consequence a decrease effective matrix component around the CB particles. Apparently, at higher loading conditions, which already deliver a certain level of mechanical stresses and strains, the densified filler network, and especially a lower amount of effective matrix material composition, adversely affect the RGD resistance. SEM-based fracture analysis did not identify any influence of the CB grades tested on the crack initiation site; however, it revealed that the cracks initiated from existing voids, hard particles, or low strength matrix sites and propagated to the outer surface.

The Sustainability of Three Indonesian Palm Oil Business Entities

The demand of palm oil products from export destination countries is still recorded to have a high growth. The prospect of world vegetable oil consumption need especially for palm oil that keeps rising gives an opportunity for Indonesia to increase its palm oil production. This research was conducted to observe how far oil palm plantation companies have conducted ISPO through Business Sustainability Typology perspective. This research made use of descriptive quantitative method. The data processing and analysis technique used in this research was descriptive quantitative analysis through Analytical Network Process (ANP) approach by using Super Decisions 2.2 software. Based on the processing result, the three companies were close to Sustainability version 3.0 but have not been perfect. Based on the average calculation of the three companies, the first priority composition from these companies is profit aspect consisting of permit and management system, implementations of oil palm processing guidelines and cultivation guidelines. In addition, it is the people aspect comprising responsibility to workers, community development, and social and community responsibility, and lastly the planet aspect of environmental management and monitoring. Managerial implications include developing and generating renewable energy by processing palm liquid waste (POME) to produce biogas as energy. They also include encouraging and supporting communities in various areas of development and utilization with a sustainable economy and holding a pollution tax that is included as a licensing fee, establishing standards for processing waste and subsidies related to business development Keywords: business sustainability typology, palm oil, ANP, sustainability, oil palm plantation companies

Input–output optimisation model for sustainable oil palm plantation development

Due to the increase in global demand for palm oil products, the oil palm industry has continued to expand in the past decades. Continuous production of fresh fruit bunches in oil palm plantation is essential to meet this growing demand. Meanwhile, the productivity of plantations is highly dependent on the supply of resources (e.g., water, fertilisers and sunlight) and on proper plantation management systems. The harvested fresh fruit bunches from oil palm plantations have to be immediately sent to palm oil mills to ensure the quality of the crude palm oil and crude palm kernel oil. In this study, oil palm plantation operations are optimised using an input–output model to determine maximum yield with minimum plantation size and greenhouse gases emissions. Multiple scenarios can be incorporated in the proposed model. To illustrate the proposed model, a case study of an oil palm plantation supplying fresh fruit bunches for a 60 t/h capacity palm oil mill in Malaysia is presented. Various plantation management practices with different resources supply constraints are considered. Based on the optimised result, the sustainability of a plantation is greatly improved. The plantation area needed to meet the requirement of the palm oil mill is reduced by 24% when using combined organic and inorganic fertilisers. A significant drop in greenhouse gases emissions from 282.95 to 200.73 kt CO2e/y can thus be achieved. This result implies that widespread use of such optimal practices can help meet growing global demand without the need to convert pristine ecosystems into new plantations.

Power and dispossession in the neoliberal food regime: oil palm expansion in Guatemala

ABSTRACTGuatemala’s palm oil production has surged in line with the global demand for biodiesel and vegetable oil production. While corporate land grabs have been a popular concept in agrarian studies, we emphasize the integral roles of the state and racially-charged political power relations, enhanced by the neoliberal food regime. These power relations, with racism at their core, foster land control grabs occurring alongside the rise of the palm oil industry. Their effects extend beyond merely the dispossession of land. The oil palm expansion and related dispossessions mostly benefit the international markets and the wealthy ruling class comprised of creole descendants and affluent ladinos. The soaring industry has given rise to human rights violations and a lack of access to or control of various resources, such as food and water. Based on fieldwork, we show that dispossessed Guatemalans, especially the indigenous, experience rising poverty, domestic food shortages and an influx of foreign foodstuffs as the meagrely paid work in the oil palm sector is only available for the few.

The Current Account of Saudi Economy through Intertemporal Model: Evidence from SVAR

The paper aims to analyze the current account of the Saudi economy using an intertemporal modeling and tested by the structural VAR methodology. By deriving the long-run current account to GDP ratio, we analyze the impacts of global and local shocks on the current account. Considering that the Saudi economy is linked to international demand for oil products and domestic demand on consumer goods and technological products, the variances in the current account and output are inevitably influenced by international shocks. The findings indicate that the long-run impact of local shocks on the current account variance exceeds by 3.92 percent its impact on the output variance, reflecting the explanation power of local dynamic shock on the current account growth. Most of the previous papers suggest that the local impact dominates the international one (Souki and Enders, 2008), and few papers advocate that the global impact exceeds the domestic effect Hoffmann (2013). The shocks analysis on the Saudi current account exhibits the relative dominance of the global markets shocks, but local and mainly supply shocks have significant impacts on the current account, referring to a dual local and global influence.

Studies on the Exergy Transfer Law for the Irreversible Process in the Waxy Crude Oil Pipeline Transportation.

With the increasing demand of oil products in China, the energy consumption of pipeline operation will continue to rise greatly, as well as the cost of oil transportation. In the field of practical engineering, saving energy, reducing energy consumption and adapting to the international oil situation are the development trends and represent difficult problems. Based on the basic principle of non-equilibrium thermodynamics, this paper derives the field equilibrium equations of non-equilibrium thermodynamic process for pipeline transportation. To seek the bilinear form of “force” and “flow” in the non-equilibrium thermodynamics of entropy generation rate, the oil pipeline exergy balance equation and the exergy transfer pipeline dynamic equation of the irreversibility were established. The exergy balance equation was applied to energy balance evaluation system, which makes the system more perfect. The exergy flow transfer law of the waxy oil pipeline were explored deeply from the directions of dynamic exergy, pressure exergy, thermal exergy and diffusion exergy. Taking an oil pipeline as an example, the influence factors of exergy transfer coefficient and exergy flow density were analyzed separately.

The Scottish oil-shale industry from the viewpoint of the modern-day shale-gas industry

Abstract Oil production in West Lothian in Scotland started in 1851. It was not the first place to produce oil from shale but it was the largest and most successful. This oil production led to major developments in oil refining and, as a result, a large demand for oil products was created. This new demand for oil products stimulated the search for oil around the world and resulted in the first modern-day oil well being drilled in Titusville Pennsylvania in 1859. Over the next 100 years, an estimated 75 MMbbl (million barrels) of oil and 500 Bcf (billion cubic ft) of gas were produced from the shales of West Lothian. Initially, the oil was produced from a thin layer of shale at Torbanehill near Bathgate. Later, the much thicker deposits in the Dinantian West Lothian Oil-shale Formation (WLO) were used to produce the oil, although there was also oil produced from other shales mostly in the Lower Coal Measures and Limestone Coal Formation. This paper looks at the Scottish oil-shale industry from the viewpoint of the modern-day shale-gas industry and highlights the contribution the industry made as the forerunner of the oil industry. The paper attempts to explain why the Scottish oil-shale industry was so successful and influential. Reasons why the oil-shale industry did not develop into modern oil-well production are also put forward. The Scottish shale-oil industry was successful not only thanks to James Young and his colleagues but also because of the geology of the Central Belt of Scotland and, in particular, the geochemical properties of the WLO. The shale-oil industry, natural oil seepage, free oil encountered during mining and the historical exploration drilling demonstrate a rich functioning source rock suggesting significant prospectivity for future exploration for both oil fields and shale gas.

Energy security and potential supply disruption: A case study in Japan

This paper provides new quantitative perspectives on energy security. We conduct an analysis in the event of energy resource supply disruption in exporting countries for Japan. The study showed that oil stockpiling by the government and firms plays an important role in energy security; the analysis shows that oil supply disruption does not cause latent demand of oil products — except naphtha — after the supply disruption. However, we found that the supply interruption of town gas caused by liquefied natural gas supply disruption is a possible weak point in Japan's energy security. This would mainly impact a variety of non-energy intensive sectors such as the customer sector. We also show that the energy security of the supply is degraded by the unplanned outage of nuclear power stations, as seen from the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Nuclear power generation and renewable energy power generation can mitigate the impact of energy resource supply interruption in the power generation sector.

Limitations of Oil Production to the IPCC Scenarios: The New Realities of US and Global Oil Production

Many of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Report for Emission Scenarios and Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) projections (especially RCP 8.5 and 6) project CO2 emissions due to oil consumption from now to 2100 to be in the range of 32–57 Gb/yr (87–156 mb/d) or (195–349 EJ/yr). World oil production (crude plus condensate) was almost constant from 2002 to 2011 at about 74 ± 1 million barrels per day (mb/d) (US Energy Institute Agency, US EIA). There was an increase in world oil production after January 2011 that was mostly due to a surge of about 6 mb/d in light tight oil (LTO) production in the USA. This increased global oil production to just above 80 mb/d. Meanwhile, production in the rest of the world remained constant. The surge in the USA resulted in a sustained situation where supply was greater than demand globally, and this initiated a crash in the price of oil. The price of oil decreased from about $100 per barrel in mid-2014 to less than $30 per barrel in early 2016. Once the oil price declined, it was further enhanced and sustained by a decrease in demand due to a slowdown in the global economy. Because LTO is expensive to produce and was unprofitable after the price crash for the exploration and production companies, the surge in US production ended in about April 2015. Now, production of LTO in the USA is declining and global oil production is as well. New oil discoveries have reached a 70-year low, which does not bode well for future production. If the present patterns persist, it is unlikely that world oil production will exceed present US EIA oil production values of about 27–29 Gb/yr (equivalent to 75–80 mb/d) or (171–182 EJ/yr). It is unlikely that the demand for oil production required for CO2 emissions in RCP8.5 and RCP6 will be met.

Mature zygotic embryo rescue improves in vitro germination and seedling production in high value oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) cultivars

The world production of palm oil has been increasing at a rapid rate due to its overwhelming demand for edible oils and oil products, oleo-chemicals and for clean transportation energy fuel. The lengthy germination period of oil palm seeds presents a major drawback for the production and supply of seedlings at commercial level. The present study was therefore, carried out to appraise the in vitro germination potential of mature zygotic embryos (MZE) of 10 Tenera oil palm cultivars (CV 1–10). In vitro germination aptitude of MZE was tested on 10 modified Murashige and Skoog (MS) culture media (CM1-10). All the ten CV showed positive response to germination between 7–20 days. Nonetheless, significant (P≤0.05) differences in germination percentage and organogenesis were noticed between CV and culture media. CV1 and CV5 scored the highest germination rate (90%) while the least germination rate of 14% was recorded in CV8. The most suitable culture medium (CM5) registered 72% germination while the least (48%) was observed in CM1 and CM8. The most robust plantlets with complete differentiation into a shoot and root axis occurred in CM2, CM5, CM7 and CM10. Complementing this embryo rescue with conventional method could help to scale up seed germination and through large-scale implementation boost seed production potential of oil palm hybrids.

Petroleum Refining: Planning Under Uncertainty

To date few researchers have studied refinery planning under uncertainty. Meanwhile refineries are vital components of national economies. The fluctuations in the prices and demand of crude oil and saleable products are uncertain in reality. This is as a result of global economic situations and indeterminate factors such as outbreak of war, changing regulatory environment, corruption, volatile raw materials prices, strike and many other parameters. In Africa for example, most refineries have had to deal with numerous challenges ranging from political and fiscal regulations in certain countries to low complexity and competition from European and Middle Eastern exports. Furthermore, low utilization rates as well as impact of international financial institutions (market liberation and deregulation of oil prices) are issues refineries have had to deal it. As a result of the aforementioned it will be easy to conclude that petroleum refining especially in Africa is unstable and ambiguous. However, It is worthy of note to mention that Africa refineries are beginning to demonstrate the ability to be able to riposte to change. Recent developments such as the construction of the Dangote oil refining Company in Nigeria, the African refiners association and World Bank refining and health study shows that African refineries may exhibit prospects brighter than they may seem currently.

Empirical analysis of transportation demand for oil products in Nigeria: Using error correction approach

This paper analyses the demand for petroleum products (gasoline and diesel) in Nigeria using time series data (1980–2013). The analyses of the trend in the consumption of products has shown that the consumption initially maintained and increasing trends, latter declined considerable with the increase in domestic prices. This underscored the important of market base pricing which will encourage efficiency, save foreign exchange, reduce fiscal burden and attract investment in the sector. Further the paper uses the Unrestricted Error Correction Models (UECM) developed by Pesaran and Shin (1999) to estimate the demand functions for oil products. The price and income elasticities for the demand function for gasoline, diesel and aggregate – are estimated in the analysis. The estimated elasticities are compared with those of similar studies in developing countries. The outcome shows that there is no significant difference between the findings of this study and previous studies in similar contexts. The results suggest that consumption of individual products is more elastic to changes in income than real prices. The income elasticities of demand are 0.6513 for the aggregate, 0.5886 for gasoline and 1.3456 for diesel. However, the price elasticities are −0.1763 for the aggregate, 0.0973 for gasoline and −0.3199 for diesel.

Fault detection and diagnostics of a three-phase separator

A high demand of oil products on daily basis requires oil processing plants to work with maximum efficiency. Oil, water and gas separation in a three-phase separator is one of the first operations that are performed after crude oil is extracted from an oil well. Failure of the components of the separator introduces the potential hazard of flammable materials being released into the environment. This can escalate to a fire or explosion. Such failures can also cause downtime for the oil processing plant since the separation process is essential to oil production. Fault detection and diagnostics techniques used in the oil and gas industry are typically threshold based alarm techniques. Observing the sensor readings solely allows only a late detection of faults on the separator which is a big deficiency of such a technique, since it causes the oil and gas processing plants to shut down.A fault detection and diagnostics methodology for three-phase separators based on Bayesian Belief Networks (BBN) is presented in this paper. The BBN models the propagation of oil, water and gas through the different sections of the separator and the interactions between component failure modes and process variables, such as level or flow monitored by sensors installed on the separator. The paper will report on the results of the study, when the BBNs are used to detect single and multiple failures, using sensor readings from a simulation model. The results indicated that the fault detection and diagnostics model was able to detect inconsistencies in sensor readings and link them to corresponding failure modes when single or multiple failures were present in the separator.

Planning of Multilayer Cylindrical Wall Reservoirs

Dependence on, and demand for oil and oil products grow every year. This inevitably leads to the development of infrastructure for the production, processing, storage and transport of this resource. This gives rise to the need for the construction of new, efficient large-volume petroleum reservoir, which would feature lower construction and operation costs while meeting stricter fire safety requirements.

State and prospects petrochemical complex of the Euroasian Economic Union States

Ensuring the competitiveness of national products and the acceleration of economic development in modern conditions are largely determined by their role in the world integration structures. One of the promising directions of Russia's participation in the integration process is the development of economic relations within the EEUS. Among the member countries the greatest potential petrochemical complex have Russia and Kazakhstan. Demand for oil, gas and petroleum products in Kyrgyzstan and Armenia are mainly met by imports from neighboring countries. Russia is a major exporter of energy resources for the neighboring countries, and one of the major consumers of manufactured goods in the countries of the EEUS. In this regard, it is Russia that is the determining reference point in matters of cooperation and harmonization of the various national systems of member countries. The most important direction of development of the Eurasian Economic Union is to create common markets for oil, gas, electricity and petroleum products. The geographical position allows you to create general transport routes, which can serve as a basis to accelerate economic growth in Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. Among the topical issues of the integration of significantly different structure of tax systems and the structure of the state budget, the most important is to create a unified system of taxation petrochemical complex. In this regard, it is necessary planned reform of the tax systems of all the participants in the taxation and control of subsoil users on the combined area, as well as in matters of indirect taxation of hydrocarbons. The next step is to improve the system of determining the tariffs for the transportation of various types of transport resources. High potential petrochemical complex in Russia and Kazakhstan and significant experience in the taxation of subsoil users in these countries suggests that they will have a leading role in the development and decision-making on major issues.

Lifting the US Crude Oil Export Ban: A Numerical Partial-Equilibrium Analysis

The upheaval in global crude oil markets and the boom in oil production from shale plays in North America have brought scrutiny on the export ban for crude oil in the United States. This paper examines the global flows and strategic refinery adjustments in a spatial, game-theoretic partial-equilibrium model. We consider detailed supply chain infrastructure with multiple crude oil qualities (supply), distinct oil products (demand), as well as specific refinery configurations and modes of transport (mid-stream). Investments in production capacity and infrastructure are endogenous. We compare two development pathways for the global oil market: one projection retaining the US export ban, and a counterfactual scenario lifting the export restrictions. Lifting the US crude ban, we find significant expansion of US sweet crude exports. In the US refinery sector, more heavy sour crude is imported and transformed. While US producers gain, the profits of US refiners decrease, due to reduced market distortions and a more efficient resource allocation. Countries importing US sweet crude benefit from higher product output, while avoiding costly refinery investments. Producers of heavy sour crude (e.g. the Middle East) are incentivised to climb up the value chain to defend their market share and maintain their dominant position.

Rapid Gas Decompression Performance of elastomers – A study of influencing testing parameters

Materials used for the oil and gas industry are exposed to high pressure, high temperature and several aggressive fluids and gases. Concerning the still rising oil and gas product demand the development of new oil and gas valves is indispensable. Therefore, new reliable materials to guarantee facility safety at extreme operating conditions are needed. The presented study deals with a specific failure, the rapid gas decompression failure, which occurs due to the exposure to such extreme conditions. This failure leads to crack initiation, crack growth and in the worst case to the complete fragmentation of the component. For the characterization of this failure a hydrogenated acrylonitrile butadiene based rubber with an acrylonitrile content of 36% was exposed to several temperatures, saturation pressures, gas mixtures and different depressurization rates. Whereas, the rising testing temperature leads to decreasing volume change during the depressurization, the increase in saturation pressure, a higher decompression rate and a higher amount of carbon dioxide clearly lead to an increasing of the maximum observed volume change. Based on the observed volume change and the material ranking, determined using common testing standards NACE International (2003) and NORSOK (2001) a correlation to polymer physical principals was established.