Catalytic Reformates -- The Impact Of The Bakken

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RBN Energy: catalytic reformates -- the impact of the Bakken.

Reformate is a blending component that makes up about 30 percent of US gasoline supplies. It is also an important source of aromatics used as feedstocks for the petrochemicals industry. Ongoing changes in the US crude oil slate are reducing the volume of heavy naphtha available to feed catalytic reformer units that make reformate. At the same time better economics for lighter ethane feedstock are reducing the volume of aromatics produced as byproducts of olefin cracking. The result is a shortage of the aromatic materials used to produce a number of petrochemical intermediates such as polymers and fibers. But more changes are coming to the reformate market due to reductions in the use of reformate in gasoline.  Today we look at the changing role of reformate.

In fact the shortfall in US supplies of BTX or reformate to make BTX means that imports of these materials are increasing. We don’t have good data on the imports of these aromatics. However we do know that the feedstocks for European and Asian petrochemical crackers are still predominantly naphtha range materials. That means these plants are producing more pygas – from which BTX can be extracted.

As the US crude oil slate gets lighter because of the dramatic increase in lighter crude from shale, refineries are producing less heavy naphtha to make refinery reformate. Although less reformate is being used in gasoline these days, there is increased demand for this intermediate product to make BTX for use by the petrochemicals industry. But without access to heavy naphtha supplies refiners cannot take advantage of higher BTX prices to improve their margins. This situation is likely to get worse as refineries have to process more and more light crude – reducing their ability to run their reformer units.

A reader (DS): BTX = benzene, toluene, xylenes.