據世界石油12月16日倫敦報道，自2017年以來，加工墨西哥灣生產的高硫原油一直沒有這么高的利潤，這主要歸功于廉價的頁巖氣。

雖然今年冬天歐洲和亞洲都在努力應對天然氣價格的飆升，但美國廉價的供應使煉油廠能夠提取低成本的氫氣，以從用含硫原油制成的燃料中去除硫磺。這意味著幾個月前那些還不受歡迎的原油等級，現在又有了需求。

與此同時，疫情的復蘇提振了對汽油和柴油的需求，這兩種燃料的基準價格在10月份達到2014年以來的最高水平。上周，政府對石油產品每周需求量的衡量達到創紀錄水平。

根據行業咨詢公司OILA的數據顯示，這有助于美國墨西哥灣沿岸煉油廠以四年來最高的利潤率將含硫原油加工成燃料。

隨著歐佩克恢復其主要重硫原油供應，美國煉油商也在利用高硫原油相對于低硫原油的更大折扣。例如，墨西哥的瑪雅高硫原油交易價格比美國路易斯安那低硫原油每桶低近10美元。

Rapidan Energy 全球石油服務主管扎卡里·羅杰斯 (Zachary Rogers) 表示，由于OPEC+ 恢復供應，高硫低硫原油價差擴大是對含硫原油重新產生興趣的另一個原因。

對含硫原油的興趣回歸可能正是美國政府目前所需要的，因為其于周五宣布一項新的銷售招標，從戰略石油儲備中提供1800萬桶含硫原油。第一次SPR交易報價向埃克森美孚借出480萬桶。

郝芬 譯自 世界石油

原文如下：

Cheap U.S. shale gas boosting refining profits for sour crudes

Processing the high-sulfur crudes produced in the Gulf of Mexico hasn’t been this profitable since 2017, thanks largely to cheap shale gas.

While Europe and Asia grapple with surging prices for natural gas this winter, cheap U.S. supplies allow refiners to extract low-cost hydrogen needed to remove sulfur from the fuel made with sour crudes. That means those crude grades, which were out of favor just a few months ago, are back in demand again.

Meanwhile, the recovery from the pandemic has boosted demand for gasoline and diesel, sending benchmark prices for both fuels to their highest since 2014 in October. A government measure of weekly demand for petroleum products reached a record last week.

That’s helping U.S. Gulf Coast refineries to process sour crudes into fuel at the highest margins in four years, according to data from industry consultants OILA.

American refiners are also taking advantage of a wider discount on sour crudes relative to sweet crude as OPEC restores its mainly heavy-sour oil supply. Mexico’s sour Maya crude, for instance, is trading nearly $10 a barrel below U.S. Light Louisiana Sweet.

“This widening of the sweet-sour spread thanks to OPEC+ returning supplies is another reason for the renewed interest in sour crudes,” said Zachary Rogers, director of global oil service at Rapidan Energy.

A return of interest in sour crudes might be just what the U.S. government needs right now as it’s set to announce a new sale tender offering 18 million barrels of sour oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve on Friday. The first SPR exchange offer saw 4.8 million barrels loaned to Exxon Mobil.

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