Refining
The Nelson Complexity Index: How to Read a Refinery Like a Balance Sheet
One number tells you whether a plant can turn cheap, heavy, sour crude into high-value diesel and jet, or whether it's s
By John Winkler · 6 min
The Catalytic Cracker: The Beating Heart That Turns Sludge Into Gasoline
The fluid catalytic cracker takes the heavy gas oil nobody wants and cracks it into the gasoline and propylene that pay
By John Winkler · 6 min
Why the U.S. Hasn't Built a New Major Refinery in Decades - and What That Means for Fuel Prices
No company has built a full-scale greenfield refinery in the United States since 1977, and the reasons behind that droug
By Christy Davis · 6 min
The Crack Spread: How Refiners Actually Make (and Lose) Money Turning Crude Into Fuel
The 3-2-1 crack spread is the single number that tells you whether a refinery is minting cash or bleeding it, and it is
By John Winkler · 6 min
Inside a Refinery: How Distillation, Cracking, and Reforming Turn One Barrel Into Dozens of Products
A barrel of crude is a mixed bag of molecules; the refinery's job is to sort them by boiling point, then chemically rebu
By John Winkler · 7 min
The Coker at the Bottom of the Barrel: Turning Tar Into Profit
The delayed coker is the unglamorous drum farm that lets a Gulf Coast refinery buy the world's cheapest, ugliest crude a
By John Winkler · 7 min
CNN Exposes the Shandong Refinery Network Keeping Iran's Oil Money Flowing
A CNN investigation maps the Chinese ports, tankers and small refineries that turn sanctioned Iranian crude into cash fo
By Sarah Johnson · 5 min
China Invokes Its Blocking Rules to Void US Sanctions on Five Teapot Refiners
Beijing has ordered its own companies, courts and banks to ignore US penalties on Hengli Petrochemical and four other in
By Christy Davis · 6 min
US Treasury Warns Banks of Sanctions Risk Over China Teapot Refiners Handling Iranian Crude
OFAC's alert tells financial institutions that moving money for Shandong's independent refiners buying Iranian oil, ofte
By Sarah Johnson · 4 min
US Sanctions China's Hengli Teapot Refinery as a Top Iranian Oil Customer
Treasury named Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery one of Tehran's most valued crude buyers, part of a widening squee
By Sarah Johnson · 5 min
Dos Bocas Ramps Up: Olmeca Refinery Lifts 2025 Gasoline Output 109%
Pemex says its long-delayed Olmeca refinery pushed 2025 gasoline production 109% above where the state company started i
By Sarah Johnson · 4 min
Phillips 66 Powers Down Its 139,000-b/d Los Angeles Refinery, Ending a Century of Wilmington Refining
The final barrel of crude has run through a plant that has refined oil in Wilmington since 1919, pulling roughly 8 perce
By Sarah Johnson · 5 min
Mexico's Oil Refining Hits 11-Year High as Olmeca Refinery Finally Ramps Up
Both trains of the crude unit at Pemex's long-delayed Dos Bocas refinery ran at once, lifting national processing to its
By Sarah Johnson · 5 min
India's Reliance Halts Rosneft Crude as Sanctions Wind-Down Deadline Hits
The 30-day OFAC wind-down window on Rosneft expired at 12:01 a.m. Eastern on November 21, and Reliance's Jamnagar comple
By John Winkler · 5 min
Dangote Unveils Plan to More Than Double Refinery Capacity to 1.4 Million b/d, Targeting World's Largest
Aliko Dangote told reporters in Lagos he will replicate the Lekki plant's processing line to reach 1.4 million barrels a
By Sarah Johnson · 5 min
Ukrainian Drones Torch Volgograd Refinery, Knocking Out 5% of Russia's Crude Runs
Ukraine's General Staff says an overnight strike set Lukoil's Volgograd refinery ablaze, hitting a plant that runs 5.6%
By Sarah Johnson · 5 min