Industrial Info Tracks More Than $600 Billion in Global Refining Projects

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--It's an interesting time for the Petroleum Refining Industry, to say the least. A glut of crude oil on the global market has significantly lowered the price of crude, substantially increasing refining margins. During the most recent round of quarterly earnings reports, Big Oil's downstream sectors helped buoy poor upstream earnings, while refiners such as Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO) (San Antonio, Texas) reported record first-quarter profits.

Europe's ailing Refining Industry has been given a boost by these increased margins, although new capacity in other parts of the world threatens to diminish these gains.

The tremendous financial and geopolitical qualities carried by crude oil and refined products almost guarantee that global refinery output and trading patterns will continue to shift frequently. A recent influx of several hundred thousand barrels of new and efficient refining capacity in the Middle East could lead to the closure of older, uncompetitive capacity in Europe and elsewhere, and establish new global trading patterns for refined products.

Other major projects are on the drawing board throughout the world. Industrial Info is tracking 5,300 capital and planned maintenance projects in the global Petroleum Refining Industry, with a combined total investment value (TIV) of $608 billion. These projects include more than 2,400 planned unit turnarounds at refineries.

While many of the capital projects remain in the early planning stages, more than 650 major capital projects, valued at $110.9 billion, are under construction. Asia easily leads other world regions in this activity, particularly China and India. Eclipsing other refining projects under construction is PetroChina Guangdong Petrochemical Company's $8.8 billion grassroot crude oil refinery in China's Guangdong province. The 400,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) refinery is being built to process crude oil from Venezuela.

A second, $3.7 billion, 200,000-BBL/d refinery is being constructed in China to process crude oil from Myanmar. PetroChina Guangdong Petrochemical Company is a subsidiary of PetroChina Company Limited (NYSE:PTR) (Beijing, China).

While additional refining capacity is being proposed in North America, as yet little significant new capacity is under construction, and the multibillion-dollar bitumen upgrader projects planned in Canada's oil sands region have been pushed out to later dates until project activity picks up in the area. Other parts of the world are tracking demand growth for products such as diesel to gauge the need for new capacity in different world regions.

On May 20, Industrial Info will be presenting a complimentary webinar on the global Refining Industry, where we will focus on global spending activity and market trends, with special emphasis on what's happening in 2015. All registered attendees will receive an "On Demand" link to view the recorded presentation at their leisure and are invited to ask questions after the event concludes.

Join us to obtain Industrial Info's unique market insight for the upcoming year and learn about key market drivers from our industry experts!

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.