Crude oil-to-chemicals technology could double per-barrel profits for integrated refiners and petrochemical producers seeking margin growth as demand declines, says IHS Markit

A revolutionary new chemical process technology, called crude oil-to-chemical (COTC), could more than double the profitability derived from a barrel of crude oil, according to a new assessment from IHS Markit.

The findings show that currently, global petrochemical companies typically earn around $8.50 per barrel of refined crude oil, but by leveraging the new COTC process technology in a world-scale refining and chemical facility, owners could increase their plant net margins to approximately $17 per barrel.

Don Bari, Vice President of Chemical Technology at IHS Markit, said: “This innovative new COTC process technology us still in its infancy, but, according to our independent analysis, if commercially proven and built to world-scale, it has the potential to more than double the value refiners can unlock from a barrel of oil.”

“This process is both transformative in terms of its potential, and timely, as refiners face declining future demand for gasoline and fuel production due to carbon emission mandates, greater vehicle fuel efficiency, and an increasing penetration of electric vehicles.”

“This goes well beyond that state-of-the-art refinery petrochemical integration by implementing new reconfigure unit operations into a refinery. The objective is to shift the product slate derived from a barrel of oil to a range of 60 to 80 per cent chemical production and non-fuel products.”

“This is up from the traditional range of 10 to 15 per cent or so, in order to significantly increase the value of crude oil reserves and provide demand security. This transformative COTC technology goes beyond even the most highly integrated sites today that are pushing 20 to 40 per cent chemicals production with traditional approaches.”