The Time Is Right for Petroleum Coke Producers and Users Planning More Than $56 Billion in Projects in North America

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Petroleum coke is produced as a by-product of coker unit process, which is one step in the refining of crude oil into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. In order to refine lower-cost and available heavy/sour crude oil, refiners must install coker units, which help to reduce the sulfur content in fuels refined from heavy or sour crude oil. In North America, the shift from refining dwindling reserves of sweet crude oil to more readily available heavy and sour crude oil from Canadian oil sands, for example, will result in increased production of petroleum coke. With more than $30 billion in planned coker unit addition projects planned at North American refineries, petroleum coke production will increase significantly in the future. For details on the coker capital spending trend in North America see related November 1, 2007 news article - Capital Spending on Refinery Coker Projects Jumps Nearly Six-Fold in 2007.

The increase in the supply of petroleum coke and the rise in price of traditional fuels have opened up new markets for its use as an alternative fuel to coal in power plants, gasification projects and other industrial applications, such as a fuel for rotary kilns at cements plants and tunnel and lime kilns at other Metals & Minerals Industry plants. The fact that it is a by-product sometimes disposed of as a waste product makes it cost-competitive with other fuel sources, such as coal.

There are 36 projects totaling more than $26.6 billion that propose to utilize petroleum coke as a primary fuel in North America. Most of these projects are located close to the source, petroleum refineries.

Click on the image at right to view a chart showing the breakdown of petroleum coke fuel projects in North America.

The majority of the projects are in the Power Industry where 19 projects totaling $17.7 billion are being planned. Several multi-billion-dollar petroleum coke fueled integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) projects are being planned in Mississippi, Texas and Saskatchewan. There are also a good number of traditional steam power plants planned using petroleum coke fired boilers. In the Alternative Fuels Industry there are four projects totaling $7.1 billion. The Metals & Minerals Industry has eight projects totaling $233 million including petroleum coke fired lime kilns and cement kiln fuel conversions.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading marketing information services company for the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy-related markets throughout the world. For more than 24 years, IIR has provided accurate and timely intelligence through products such as plant and project information databases, focused market databases, industry forecasting, key industry contacts, industry and territorial map products, direct marketing services and applications, and daily industry news.