Re-Posting: US Refiners Post Record Crude Oil Processing In CY18

In all the clutter this morning, worth re-posting:

RBN Energy: making America great again! US refiners processed record crude oil volumes in 2018.

Record runs allowed U.S. refiners to continue a multiyear streak of strong margins in 2018 despite higher crude prices during the first three quarters and a weaker fourth quarter after product prices tanked along with crude in October. While rising crude prices threatened refinery margins, a high Brent premium over domestic benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) kept feedstock prices for U.S. refiners lower than their international rivals. The availability of discounted Canadian crude also helped produce stellar returns for Midwest, Rockies and Gulf Coast refiners that are configured to process heavy crude. Product prices only weakened in the fourth quarter when gasoline inventories began to rise. Today, we highlight major trends in the U.S. refining sector during 2018 and looks forward to 2019.

U.S. refiners processed record volumes of crude in 2018. After processing an average 16.6 MMb/d of crude in 2017, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. refiners upped their game to input an all-time high of about 17 MMb/d in 2018. Increased throughput in 2018 came with minimal additions to operable capacity and represents an annual average utilization rate just above 93% based on weekly EIA data. The 2018 refinery input levels were consistently above the prior 10-year average.

China refiners also broke records in 2018.

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The Book Page 

The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean: The Ancient World Economy & The Kingdoms of Africa, Arabia & India, Raoul McLaughlin, c. 2014, 2018

A denarius has about 0.158733 ounces of silver. At $10/ounce, a denarius is worth about $1.59, so let's say $1.50/Roman silver denarius. Perhaps one could say the Roman silver denarius was a "silver dollar" at face value.

A gold aureus ad about 8 grams of gold, or 0.282192 ounces of gold. At $1,200/ounce of gold, a gold aureus was worth about  $338, so let's say about $350.

$350 / $1.50 = 233
$1,200  / $10 = 120

Conversion:

• 25 silver denarii = 1 gold aureus

Today:

• 70 American Silver Eagles (BU) at $20 each = one Krugerrand (BU) at $1,400 each

The book deals with one fundamental question: how did the Roman Empire function, and, in particular, how did it pay for its military costs?

What I am interested in: connecting the dots of pagan Roman rites, Saudi Arabia, and Christian myths and legends.

The final civil war of the Roman Republic was fought in 31 BC when the Roman general Octavian, adopted son of Julius Caesar, declared war on the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra (yes, she really was a real person) and her consort Mark Antony.

Cleopatra fled back to Egypt when it appeared that Mark was going to lose bigley. He did. The Romans annexed Egypt and the rest is history, as they say.

Egypt introduced a quarter-rate tax on trade between the eastern Mediterranean and the Far East. One-fourth of all trade was returned to Rome. Rome used that to money to fund the first professional army in the history of mankind.

All goods sent to the Egyptian Red Sea ports at that time had to stop at Coptos/Qift.

From the net:

Koptos was an important station on the way from the Nile valley over desert routes to the Red Sea ports.

One of these ports was Myos Homos, which was relatively close to Koptos.

However, the Red Sea has tempestuous and dangerous currents and air flows, and more southerly ports were preferred. With the foundation by Ptolemy II of the Red Sea port Berenike about 255 BC Koptos became especially important.

The desert route to Berenike started normally at Edfu, but with the Theban rebellion about 207/206 BC the town was no longer part of the Ptolemaic empire, and the caravans may have had to start at Koptos instead.

Berenike is mentioned in ancient literature as the port for the import of African elephants, which were needed for warfare. However, it was also important for the trade with India and Arabia.

Koptos was also the starting point for expedition to several quarries, which were very important especially for the Romans. 

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Gusty Winds Over The Weekend