Top 3 Takeaways From The OPIS 2023 Conference

See the other posts in this series, Top 3 Takeaways: 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 2023’s top 3 takeaways from Hoekstra Trading’s perspective: Recommendation Anyone with a stake in RINs pricing and economics should get Hoekstra Research Report 10 which includes this Hoekstra IMS RINs pricing spreadsheet that accurately calculates theoretical RIN prices, tracks them versus…

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Falling RIN Prices

The actual price (gold) and model price (black) agreed closely in the first half of 2022. Then the model began a steady downtrend to half its peak level. The actual market price has followed this trend with a lag and a much lower slope, forming a growing gap between the theoretical and actual prices.

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Sulfur Credit Strategy Pays Off For Refiners

The price of the Tier 3 gasoline sulfur credits has increased 12-fold in the last two years, and the impacts have been showing up in refining companies’ earnings. Four years ago, Dave Lamp, CEO of CVR Energy Inc., spoke about CVR’s Tier 3 strategy in their 2nd quarter 2019 earnings conference call: Dave Lamp, answering…

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99% Of Fuel Exhaust Problem Is Solved

Most people under 30 don’t know that 99% of the problem with vehicle exhaust emissions was solved while they were growing up, as evidenced by this chart showing the reduction of sulfur in gasoline to 10 parts per million (ppm). This, along with reductions in nitrogen oxides (NOx), toxics, particulates, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs),…

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Modeling RINs As An Option – Part 2

Also see Part 1 of this series In Figure 1, the silver points represent the price of D4 RINs that expire at the end of that trading year (2012), and the gold points represent RINs that expire at the end of the next trading year (2013). The lines are calculated by the Hoekstra Trading RIN…

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Economics of Octane Loss In Gasoline Desulfurizers

With gasoline margins surprisingly strong, refiners are focusing on economic costs and opportunities in cracked gasoline desulfurization. These opportunities come in the categories: feed, catalyst, process, sulfur credits, laboratory tools, revamps, and new investment opportunities. Many of them can be captured quickly with no capital investment. This segment of the RefComm 2023 FCC program will…

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What Has Quintupled? Multiple Choice:

A. Octane value B. Gasoline sulfur credit price C. U.S. gasoline exports D. Octane-barrel destruction in U.S. gasoline desulfurizers E. Reformate price premium F. All the above The answer is F, all the above. The hidden cause that links them is the Tier 3 gasoline sulfur specification. Recommendation: Read this short book to quickly become…

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