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World Oil Outlook - Opec

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Shell Chemicals and Formosa Plastics have all committed to build new ethane-fed<br />

ethylene crackers and associated units, and in June 2012, ExxonMobil stated it would<br />

build a new ethane cracker in Texas. Four other companies are reported to be planning<br />

restarts and/or expansions at existing facilities, and others are believed to be evaluating<br />

options. Reportedly, the new plants plus the expansions should increase US ethylene<br />

cracking capacity by around 30% by 2017. 5 Other developments are also taking place<br />

which use propane as feedstock.<br />

In terms of fuel oil, a significant contraction in demand is expected. Fuel oil<br />

will almost disappear from the region’s demand; only 0.2 mb/d of fuel oil demand is<br />

projected for the US & Canada by 2035.<br />

Product quality specifications<br />

In the past 30 years or so, significant investment has been made to comply with<br />

tightening refined product quality specifications. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s,<br />

regulators focused on lead content in gasoline. After a gradual shift to unleaded gasoline<br />

– the process is still ongoing globally – the focus turned to sulphur content in<br />

the mid-1990s, especially in the EU, Japan, Canada and the US. This shift combined<br />

with the growing importance of diesel oil and gasoil, especially in road transportation,<br />

resulted in the tightening of quality requirements for these products too.<br />

Over the past decade, many developed regions and countries, including the EU,<br />

the US, Canada and Japan, have successfully completed a transition to Ultra Low<br />

Sulphur (ULS) fuels. The follow-up steps to improving gasoline quality are focused on<br />

the reduction of benzene and aromatics content, together with increasing the octane<br />

number. And for diesel, cetane improvement and a reduction in polyaromatics are<br />

now starting to be addressed. In addition to limits on exhaust emissions of SOx, NOx<br />

and particulates, the US and Europe are moving towards reducing greenhouse gases,<br />

specifically CO 2.<br />

Figures 5.12 and 5.13 show the maximum legislatively permitted sulphur content<br />

worldwide in gasoline and on-road diesel fuel respectively as of September 2012. However,<br />

it is important to emphasize that actual sulphur content levels for products available<br />

in specific countries can (and often do) differ from those permitted by regulators.<br />

Since 2010, the US has limited sulphur content in gasoline to a 30 parts per<br />

million (ppm) maximum standard for all refiners, although California has its own<br />

stricter specifications set at a 15 ppm maximum. Canada implemented a 30 ppm<br />

sulphur limit in 2005. Since January 2009, the EU has required gasoline containing<br />

10 ppm maximum sulphur content. Before that, as of 2005, EU Member States<br />

165<br />

Chapter<br />

5

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