U.S. Nuclear Power Tax Credits, Low February Ethane Demand: Your Daily Energy News

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Energy Market highlights gathered by Industrial Info and IIR Energy

POWER
U.S. Senator Prepares Tax Credit Legislation for Nuclear Plants - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) is preparing legislation that would provide a tax credit for existing nuclear power plants, a move that follows the Biden administration's signaling that it supports the subsidies to help meet climate goals. Cardin said he would soon introduce a production tax credit for the reactors, which are virtually free of carbon emissions. "We'll attempt to get that included in an energy package," Cardin told Reuters on Monday night. "We're not sure the pathway yet." (Reuters)

ETHANE
February's Freeze Caused Largest-Ever Drop for U.S. Ethane Demand - In February, extremely cold winter weather in the Gulf Coast region resulted in outages at most petrochemical plants in the area, causing the largest monthly decline in demand for ethane feedstock on record. Ethane consumption in February dropped 654,000 barrels per day (BBL/d) from January to a total of 1.21 million BBL/d in February. It was the lowest level of ethane consumption since October 2017, when the U.S. Gulf Coast was recovering from the impacts of Hurricane Harvey. (1012 Industry Report)

CRUDE OIL
Venezuela Restarts Crude Oil Blending After Gas Outage - Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA has restarted crude blending at its Sinovensa and Petropiar plants after a gas supply outage to the Jose oil export terminal halted operations last week, according to a document seen by Reuters on Monday. The resumption comes as a very large crude carrier (VLCC) set sail after delays loading at Jose and a second VLCC prepared to leave, partly alleviating a bottleneck of vessels that had built up due to the gas outage. Both supertankers are carrying crude cargoes bound for Asia and a third vessel of the same size is set to depart by the end of the month to cover a similar route. If you subscribe to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence Refining and Terminals database, click here for the plant profile of the Petropiar upgrader and here for the Jose terminal. (Reuters)

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About Industrial Info
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