News

California’s LCFS is successfully proliferating. Is it also successfully decarbonizing transport?

July 13, 2021 , , ,

July 13, 2021 By Kendra Seymour As explained in our LCFS 101 Beginner’s Guide and LCFS 101 Update articles, California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) aims to reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) by reducing the average carbon intensity (CI) of transportation fuels that are used in California. Overall program compliance is generally achieved through the substitution of alternative, low-CI...
Read More

Stillwater’s Projected Costs of the Approved HB 1091 Clean Fuels Standard

June 15, 2021 , ,

June 15, 2021 The Washington Clean Fuel Standard (CFS) has been signed into law, but the details of program implementation have not yet been developed by the state’s Department of Ecology (DOE). As such, its costs can currently only be estimated by comparing the Washington CFS legislation to the three existing LCFS-type programs in California, Oregon, and British Columbia (BC)....
Read More

Comparing LCFS Credit Trades and Pricing Between LCFS Programs

June 14, 2021 , ,

June 14, 2021 By Jim Mladenik  Stillwater’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) team has closely monitored the trends in the LCFS market in California from its inception a decade ago. As other LCFS-style programs are proposed and implemented in additional jurisdictions, we track trends in these nascent markets as well. After browsing recent data released by British Columbia (BC) concerning that province’s LCFS program,...
Read More

What does California’s “full reopening” mean for fuels markets? 

June 15, 2021 ,

June 15, 2021 By Dave Hackett  It’s been a weird, rough year for everyone, hasn’t it? As the world begins to return to the “new normal,” lots of folks are wondering what, exactly, that will look like. In our area of expertise, we’ve received a number of questions from clients and reporters pondering the potential economic impact of California’s “full reopening” today, June 15th. What might that mean for California drivers and for gas...
Read More

Taxes and fees drive California’s high diesel prices

May 10, 2021 , ,

May 10, 2021 by Leigh Noda Back in February, we published an article about the factors contributing to the price of gasoline in California. We concluded that, contrary to what some may claim, GHG-reduction programs and taxes on petroleum fuels have a cost, and these costs are passed through to consumers. That first article focused on gasoline, but diesel customers...
Read More

Net Zero – A view from Across the Pond

May 10, 2021 , , ,

May 10, 2021 By Olivier (Olly) Macé Over the coming months, Stillwater plans to publish a series of articles highlighting potential paths to Net Zero here in the U.S. and globally. We kick off this series with an article from one of our newest Senior Associates who lives in England. Greetings from old Europe, where the interest in the energy...
Read More

Flash Report: 4Q2020 LCFS Data Show 374,000 MT Build in the Credit Bank

April 30, 2021 , ,

April 30, 2021 This afternoon, CARB posted the fourth quarter 2020 data for the LCFS program. The 4Q2020 report gives us insight into the credit bank situation for the nine months following COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. In today’s flash report, we offer a quick look at the fourth quarter data. Our comprehensive analysis will be published in Stillwater’s Quarterly LCFS Newsletter...
Read More

Flash Report: Washington Legislature Passes Clean Fuel Standard

April 26, 2021 , ,

  April 26, 2021  Over the weekend, the Washington State Legislature passed HB 1091, the state’s Clean Fuel Standard. The bill is now on Governor Jay Inslee’s desk awaiting signature. Assuming Governor Inslee signs the legislation, which is all but certain, Washington will join California, Oregon, and British Columbia as states/provinces on the West Coast to enact LCFS style programs that mandate the reduction of carbon emissions in the transport fuel...
Read More

Modern Alchemy – Waste into Sustainable Aviation Fuel

April 26, 2021 , , ,

April 26, 2021 by Mike Newman, Director of Parhelion Underwriting As the aviation industry seeks to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, decoupling airline growth from carbon growth, Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) has emerged as the leading approach to further reduce GHG emissions from jet aircraft. The world’s aviation sector currently accounts for approximately 2-3% of manmade global carbon emissions....
Read More

Retail gasoline and diesel prices are sky-high. Why?

April 1, 2021 , ,

April 1, 2021 By Steve Holton In the first quarter of 2021, prices at the pump have been rising steadily, leading many people to complain once again about the price of gasoline. Have you ever wondered how the price of gasoline or diesel is derived? A multitude of factors impact the price we pay at the pump including, of course,...
Read More

The Social Cost of Carbon Part I: How Does the U.S. Estimate the Cost of Climate Change?

March 29, 2021 , ,

March 29, 2021 By Marcy Casement The Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) represents an estimate (in dollars) of the damage to society and the environment over time from each additional metric ton (MT) of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. This figure takes into account damage from the effects of climate change, such as sea-level rise, extreme weather, and water...
Read More

Is COVID-19 a Force Majeure Event?

March 25, 2021 , ,

March 25, 2021 By Barry Schaps The entire transportation fuels supply chain, from crude oil wellhead to the retail service station dispenser, is full of commercial contracts requiring parties to perform specified acts in specified ways within specified timeframes. The impacts of COVID-19 have disrupted normal business activities and upended commercial transactions which may result in years of litigation. You...
Read More

How might the proposed Washington LCFS impact in-state renewable diesel production and use?

March 17, 2021 , , ,

March 17, 2021 by Jim Mladenik The Washington state legislature is currently considering legislation (HB 1091) that would require fuel producers and importers to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions attributable to each unit of transportation fuel, a measure known as “carbon intensity.” Carbon intensity includes not only the emissions associated with burning fuels but also the emissions created in extracting...
Read More

How does Hydrogen compare to Biomass-Based Diesel on GHG, PM, and petroleum reduction?

March 3, 2021 , , ,

March 4, 2021 By Gary Yowell Over the last few years, the California state legislature has considered numerous bills which seek to incentivize the replacement of diesel fuel with hydrogen in the transportation sector. Such a transition would require significant investments in hydrogen retail infrastructure and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), and the legislature aims to soften that blow with...
Read More

As the RINs Spin

March 2, 2021 , ,

March 1, 2021 By Adam Schubert With the completion of the current season of refiner quarterly earnings reports, federal Renewable Fuel Standard credits – known as renewable identification numbers, or RINs – prices are once more in the headlines. As RIN prices have increased since the beginning of 2020, it is worth taking another look at this key element of...
Read More

Potential Impacts of LCFS-Style Programs on Fuels Markets

February 15, 2021 , ,

February 15, 2021 Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) programs are structured to reduce the carbon intensity (CI) of transportation fuels over time by setting progressively stricter CI reduction standards each year. All fuels with CI values higher than the standard, such as petroleum gasoline and diesel, generate deficits. Fuels produced or imported with CIs lower than the standard, such as...
Read More

Is it time for CARB & EPA to revise vehicle emission and emission-reduction estimates?

February 2, 2021 ,

February 2, 2021 By Gary Yowell The California Air Resource Board (CARB) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are empowered through the Clean Air Act and other legislation to expeditiously reduce the severity and number of violations to air quality standards.[1] Current environmental policy uses annual pollution levels to measure and define success, but the legislative authority to enact...
Read More

Sacramento policymakers drive California’s high gasoline prices

February 1, 2021 , ,

February 1, 2021 By Leigh Noda California has a history of having the highest gasoline prices in the country. Why? For one, the West Coast fuels market is isolated from other supply/demand centers. As such, the West Coast is susceptible to unexpected outages of West Coast refineries as it is unable to backfill an unexpected loss in supply by quickly...
Read More

Flash Report: 3Q2020 LCFS Data Show Slight Build in the Credit Bank

January 29, 2021 , ,

January 29, 2021 On Friday afternoon, January 29th, CARB posted the third quarter 2020 data for the LCFS program. The 3Q2020 report gives us insight into the credit bank situation for the six months following COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. In today’s flash report, we offer a quick look at the third-quarter data. Our comprehensive analysis will be published in Stillwater’s Quarterly LCFS Newsletter...
Read More

Downstream Oil & Gas M&A Part 3:  The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

January 15, 2021 , ,

January 15, 2020 By Vaughn Hulleman with Leigh Noda and Barry Schaps In our first article in this three-part series, we identified the unique impacts of the pandemic on oil products’ demand and pointed out that by the time the pandemic has resolved, there will likely be increased environmental legislation risk negatively affecting the sector. As such, acquiring downstream oil...
Read More

EPA Issues Year-End Streamlining Rule

January 10, 2021 ,

January 10, 2021 By Mike Leister On December 4, 2020 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its final rule on streamlining the existing gasoline, diesel, and other fuel quality regulations by removing no-longer relevant provisions, getting rid of duplicate compliance provisions (e.g., duplicative registration requirements that are required by every EPA fuels program), dropping unnecessary and out-of-date requirements, and...
Read More

Update: How many credits would go out-of-state if Washington implemented an LCFS?

December 18, 2020 , ,

December 18, 2020 by Jim Mladenik A previous Stillwater analysis determined that roughly 75% of credits in Oregon’s Clean Fuels Program (CFP) and California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) programs are derived from fuels produced outside of those states. The same analysis suggested that a similar trend is likely for Washington state should it adopt an LCFS-style program. In the...
Read More

Downstream Oil & Gas M&A Part 2: A Fistful of Dollars

December 15, 2020 , , ,

December 15, 2020 By Vaughn Hulleman with Leigh Noda and Barry Schaps On November 15th, we published the first article of a three-part series on downstream oil and gas mergers and acquisitions. That first article covered macro and regional factors that may help answer the question at hand. This is the second article in our Downstream Oil & Gas M&A...
Read More

Downstream Oil & Gas M&A Part 1: Pssst… Want to Buy a Refinery?

November 18, 2020 , ,

November 15, 2020 By Vaughn Hulleman & Jim Mladenik The petroleum industry is known for its cyclic nature, and, traditionally, value-buyers find opportunity to acquire assets during periods of stress. The current reduction in oil products’ demand brought on by the pandemic, along with other factors, have severely distressed downstream oil and gas assets. Several refineries have already shut down...
Read More

Amid year of global uncertainty, Stillwater launches West Coast Watch and proprietary Refining Margin Index

November 18, 2020 , , , , ,

On November 17th, Stillwater Associates launched the West Coast Watch. This market information portal provides refined petroleum product and renewable fuels supply and demand data, industry news, and analysis to help industry leaders understand the market, spot opportunities, and act confidently.   The West Coast transportation fuels market is often referred to as an island, full of complexities and obstacles...
Read More

Introducing the West Coast Watch Market Analysis

November 18, 2020 , , , ,

November 18, 2020 The West Coast transportation fuels market is rapidly changing with significant impacts just this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the push to de-carbonize the transport sector. Based on these factors and with an eye toward helping stakeholders navigate this challenging market, Stillwater is introducing our West Coast Watch market information portal. Fuel producers, marketers, retailers,...
Read More

California’s Clean Truck Regulation: How will the ACT Impact Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicle Fuel Demand and Emissions?

November 18, 2020 , , , ,

November 18, 2020 Through our new West Coast Watch platform, Stillwater is pleased to offer this forward-looking view on the possible changes to medium- and heavy-duty vehicle fuel demand and emissions under California’s Advanced Clean Truck Regulation. This Stillwater Special Report provides an overview of California’s Advanced Clean Truck Rule (ACT) and its impacts on medium- and heavy-duty vehicle (MHDV)...
Read More

Flash Report: 2Q2020 LCFS Data Show Slight Draw on the Credit Bank

November 2, 2020 ,

November 2, 2020 On Friday afternoon, October 30th, CARB posted the second quarter 2020 data for the LCFS program. The 2Q2020 report gives us insight into the credit bank situation for the three months following stay-at-home orders due to COVID-19. In today’s flash report, we offer a quick look at the second quarter data. Our comprehensive analysis will be published...
Read More

West Coast Watch: Ugly Refiner Margins Linger as Pandemic Drags On

October 22, 2020 ,

October 22, 2020 By Kendra Seymour and Leigh Noda The West Coast transportation fuels market is often referred to as an island, and refiners in California and Washington face unique market pressures even in the best of times. West Coast refiners are isolated geographically, must produce gasoline and diesel to unique specifications, and are subject to greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction...
Read More

West Coast LCFS Credits Generated by Fuels Produced Out-of-State

October 20, 2020 , ,

October 20, 2020 by Jim Mladenik  Summary California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) and Oregon’s Clean Fuel Program (CFP) are designed to provide significant financial incentives for the production and blending of low-carbon fuels into the states’ transportation fuels systems. These incentives can be large enough to spur development of numerous projects to reduce the carbon intensity (CI) of ethanol,...
Read More

Turning a Blind Eye to Oil Spills in Venezuela

September 28, 2020

September 28, 2020 By Barry Schaps The preface to Former National Security Advisor Lt. General H.R. McMaster’s new book Battlegrounds, published last week, begins with “This is not the book that most people wanted me to write.” Similarly, this article is not one our audience expects to find in Stillwater’s Newsletter, but its importance to our readership requires awareness. As...
Read More

Part 2: What’s up with the new 100% ZEV mandate in California? An Internal Stillwater Conversation

September 24, 2020 ,

September 24, 2020 By Kendra Seymour Yesterday, shortly after California’s governor Gavin Newsom announced his Executive Order mandating 100% ZEV car sales by 2035, I caught up with a few of my colleagues via Slack to get a better understanding of the issues around electrification. Thinking that this dialogue might be of interest to our readers, we published that initial back-and-forth....
Read More

What’s up with the new 100% ZEV mandate in California? An internal Stillwater conversation (Part 1)

September 23, 2020 ,

September 23, 2020 By Kendra Seymour As editor of Stillwater’s LCFS Newsletter and a contributor on many of Stillwater’s LCFS-related client projects, I spend most of my time researching and reporting around renewables markets and the programs which incentivize the development, deployment, and adoption of alternative fuels. Today, shortly after California’s governor Gavin Newsom announced his Executive Order mandating 100% ZEV car...
Read More

West Coast Watch: The Pandemic and Wildfires Pummel Refining Margins

September 22, 2020 ,

September 22, 2020 By Megan Boutwell The West Coast transportation fuels market is often referred to as an island, and refiners in California and Washington face unique market pressures even in the best of times. West Coast refiners are isolated geographically, must produce gasoline and diesel to unique specifications, and are subject to greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction regulations including the...
Read More

Stillwater Stars in Litigation Support

September 15, 2020 ,

September 15, 2020 By Barry Schaps You are probably familiar with expert witnesses in legal cases from their appearances on TV shows and in movies. But did you know that Stillwater Associates provides expert testimony and litigation support for cases involving the transportation fuels industry? In fact, litigation support is one of our core areas of expertise, even if Stillwater’s...
Read More

Introducing the West Coast Watch Refining Margin Index

August 27, 2020

August 27, 2020 By Megan Boutwell The West Coast transportation fuels market is often referred to as an island, and refiners in California and Washington face unique market pressures even in the best of times. Geographic isolation, unique gasoline and diesel specifications, and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction regulations including the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard...
Read More

Buying in the Dip

August 26, 2020 ,

August 26, 2020 By Kendra Seymour By now, it’s no secret that the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing quarantine culture has had serious effects on transportation fuels markets as people are traveling by car and by plane much less frequently. These effects are likely to linger for some time, but eventually life will return to a new...
Read More

As California Burns, Diesel Trucks Clean the Air

August 25, 2020 ,

August 25, 2020 By Gary Yowell For the past week, dozens of lightning-induced wildfires have raged in California, resulting in unhealthy, smoke-laden air. The air quality is so poor that it has exceeded particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) ambient air quality standards. PM10 is smoke that can be trapped on a 10-micron filter, PM2.5 is even smaller smoke particles that...
Read More

Flash Report: 1Q2020 LCFS Data Show Nearly 460,000 MT Draw on the Credit Bank

July 31, 2020 ,

July 31, 2020 Today, CARB posted the first quarter 2020 data for the LCFS program. The 1Q2020 report gives us insight into the credit bank situation as stay-at-home orders went into place due to COVID-19. In today’s flash report, we offer a quick look at the first-quarter data. Our comprehensive analysis will be published in Stillwater’s Quarterly LCFS Newsletter which...
Read More

How Does California’s New Advanced Clean Trucks Rule Affect Diesel Demand?

July 13, 2020 ,

July 13, 2020 By Gary Yowell On June 25, 2020, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) rule which seeks to accelerate the adoption of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) in the medium-and heavy-duty truck sector and reduce harmful emissions generated from on-road mobile sources. Medium- and heavy-duty vehicles include the largest and heaviest pickup trucks and...
Read More

The Search for Zero

July 6, 2020 , ,

July 6, 2020 By Adam Schubert A number of Stillwater’s clients come to us with questions concerning ethanol-free gasoline (E0).  These questions include items such as: Who uses E0 and why? How much E0 is being sold and where? What are the economics behind the product? In this article, we provide brief answers to those questions and more. Before diving...
Read More

A Peek at Stillwater’s Office-less Culture

May 6, 2020 ,

May 6, 2020 by Megan Boutwell  In 1998, Dave Hackett started doing some consulting work out of his home office. For most of his career in transportation energy, Dave commuted from various homes in California, Connecticut, Virginia, and (again and finally) California to Mobil Oil offices in Los Angeles, Manhattan, Fairfax, back to Manhattan, and Long Beach. For his new...
Read More

Post-Coronavirus: What’s Next in the Environmental Commodities Markets

April 30, 2020 , ,

On April 30th, 2020, Stillwater President Dave Hackett participated in a webinar hosted by Parhelion Underwriting on the topic of how the fallout from COVID-19 will affect environmental commodities. Dave spoke about the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) credit markets. To view a PDF version of Dave’s slide deck, click here.

What’s going on with crude? An internal Stillwater conversation in real-time as oil prices plummeted

April 21, 2020 ,

April 21, 2020 By Kendra Seymour As editor of Stillwater’s LCFS Newsletter and a contributor on many of Stillwater’s LCFS-related client projects, I spend most of my time working in renewables markets. Yesterday, as crude markets began showing particularly rare volatility, however, I caught up with my colleague Barry Schaps via Slack to get a better understanding of what was...
Read More

COVID-19 and the LCFS: Groundhog Day

April 15, 2020 , ,

April 15, 2020 By Leigh Noda For the past month, the Stillwater LCFS team has been publishing regular reports on how COVID-19 is affecting the LCFS program and the fuels markets governed by the program. This is the latest of that series. You can read our previous updates here. Want to receive updates like this and other in-depth analysis of the...
Read More

Rebalancing Refinery Jet Production for Covid-19 – How Low Can You Go?

April 15, 2020 ,

April 14, 2020 By Adam Schubert For U.S. refiners, profitability is tightly linked to production of the three major “light” petroleum fuel products – gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. Individual refineries are typically configured to optimize the yield of these three products with the most economical crudes available in their region and demand in accessible markets. Relative demand for the...
Read More

COVID-19 and the LCFS: Ain’t No Sunshine

April 6, 2020 , ,

April 3, 2020 Note: The title of today’s analysis pays tribute to onetime Navy aircraft mechanic and three-time Grammy Award winner Bill Withers who died March 30th. As AP reporter Mark Kennedy observed, Withers’ “death comes as the public has drawn inspiration from his music during the coronavirus pandemic, with health care workers, choirs, artists and more posting their own renditions on...
Read More

COVID-19’s Economic Impacts on the LNG Market

March 11, 2020 ,

March 11, 2020 By John Wolff Worldwide natural gas markets are unsettled by the current and plausible impacts of the COVID-19 virus.  There has been a widely reported reduction in Chinese crude oil and products demand as auto travel, commercial deliveries, and airline flights have been reduced. The likely duration of the economic impacts is not clearly understood at present....
Read More

Food for Thought: Overly Aggressive NOx Reduction Has Delayed California’s Ozone Attainment by 15 Years

February 12, 2020 , ,

February 12, 2020 By Gary Yowell The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has a long and proud history of ambitious reductions to air pollution which CARB deems necessary to meet ambient air quality standards. Continuing this 50-year trend, CARB is considering reducing its heavy-duty vehicles’ nitrogen oxides (NOx) standard by 90%. This new NOx standard[1] would require extensive and expensive...
Read More

IMO 2020: No Large Speed Bump Thus Far

February 11, 2020 , ,

February 11, 2020 By Ralph Grimmer Over the past three years, Stillwater Associates has offered a series of articles on various aspects of IMO 2020. The long-awaited IMO 2020 regulations were implemented on January 1, 2020 – 40 days ago. In this article, we will provide our takeaways on how the initial rollout has gone, a recap of strategies/tactics that...
Read More

Flash Report: 3Q2019 LCFS Data Show a Continued Slowing Trend in Net Deficits

February 3, 2020 ,

February 3, 2020 On January 31st, 2020 CARB posted the third quarter of 2019 data for the LCFS program. In today’s flash report, we offer a quick look at the third-quarter data. Our comprehensive analysis will be published in Stillwater’s Quarterly LCFS Newsletter which is scheduled to be published on February 14th. The third-quarter data shows a slowing of the...
Read More

95 RON Gasoline and the Political CAFE Ping-Pong Game

January 15, 2020 , , , ,

January 15, 2020 By Ron Pike In an effort to further reduce hydrocarbon consumption in the U.S., 95 RON (Research Octane Number) gasoline has been suggested as a way to help achieve proposed higher corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) requirements. A higher RON allows an internal combustion engine to run at a higher compression ratio, achieve more power, and, therefore,...
Read More

An Updated Guide to EPA’s Tier 3 Gasoline Sulfur Standards

January 5, 2020 , , , , ,

January 5, 2020 by Mike Leister and E.J. Ledet Effective January 1, 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began requiring all U.S. gasoline to meet an annual 10 parts per million (ppm) average sulfur requirement as part of its new Tier 3 vehicle and fuel regulations. (Stillwater wrote a quick guide to Tier 3 back then, and it’s still...
Read More

Sustainable Aviation Fuel – the key to CORSIA compliance

November 21, 2019 ,

November 21, 2019 By Megan Boutwell Last month we looked at how CORSIA, the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) carbon offsetting and reduction scheme for international aviation, is being implemented. The rule is currently in the baseline development phase and won’t be mandatory for international flights until 2027. This international rule is one pillar in a larger strategy set forth...
Read More

2Q2019 LCFS Data – Insights into the Future of Clean Fuels Programs

November 15, 2019 ,

November 15, 2019 By Leigh Noda On October 31st, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) released the data reported by fuel-reporting Entities into the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) Reporting Tool (LRT) through the second quarter of 2019. Stillwater has analyzed the data and included our analysis in our Second Quarter 2019 LCFS Newsletter (subscription required). In this article, we...
Read More

Flash Report: 2Q2019 LCFS Data Show Slowing Drawdown of Credit Bank

November 4, 2019 ,

November 1, 2019 On October 31st, CARB posted the second quarter of 2019 data for the LCFS program. In today’s flash report, we offer a quick look at the data. Our comprehensive analysis will be published in Stillwater’s Quarterly LCFS Newsletter which is scheduled to be published on November 14th. The second quarter data show credits growing more than deficits...
Read More

CORSIA – How are we going to police international aviation emissions?

October 24, 2019 , ,

October 24, 2019 By Megan Boutwell As we explained in our CORSIA 101 article a few months back, the goal of CORSIA – the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) carbon offsetting and reduction scheme for international aviation – is to cap carbon emissions from international aviation at 2020 levels. In many ways, this United Nations effort to reduce emissions in...
Read More

The Ultimate E-Ticket: California Gasoline Prices*

October 22, 2019 , ,

October 22, 2019 By Dave Hackett On Monday, October 21, my friends at the California Energy Commission (CEC) released “Additional Analysis on Gasoline Prices in California.” This report is a follow-on to a May 2019 report that had been requested by Governor Gavin Newsom. Both reports examine why California gasoline prices are higher than the rest of the country. These...
Read More

How Accurate are VMT Estimates?

October 5, 2019 , , ,

October 15, 2019 By Gary Yowell Estimating vehicle miles traveled (VMT) has important implications for analyzing and forecasting transportation fuel use and carbon dioxide CO2 emissions. VMT estimates are frequently used as the foundation for transportation fuel use analyses and forecasts. This practice should be carefully examined, especially given the four widely varying VMT estimates found for the same historic...
Read More

Where were you when Saudi Aramco was attacked?

September 26, 2019 , ,

September 25, 2019 by Simoon Cannon The recent bombing of the Saudi Arabian Abqaiq gas-oil separation processing plant on September 14th sparked a frenzy of conversations among oil and gas professionals. Wall Street wanted to know how this geopolitical event would affect the price of crude oil, whether it would become a macroeconomic nightmare for the demand and supply balance...
Read More

Why Aren’t Refiners Recovering Stationary Source Cap & Trade Costs?

September 20, 2019 , ,

September 20, 2019 by Jeff Kennedy “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” I’m sitting here on a Friday afternoon, contemplating just how true that old adage is. More than 25 years ago, before Stillwater was launched and before the ExxonMobil merger, I was with Mobil West Coast Supply in Long Beach working with many of the...
Read More

2019 West Coast Harbor Safety Committee Summit Presentation on IMO 2020

September 19, 2019 , , ,

On September 19th, Stillwater Senior Associate Ralph Grimmer presented at the 2019 West Coast Harbor Safety Committee Summit on the Queen Mary off the coast of Long Beach. The summit was sponsored by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) and the Pacific States/British Columbia Oil Spill Task Force. Ralph spoke about the...
Read More

Clean Marine Fuel in 2020: An Opportunity for Biofuel?

September 1, 2019 , ,

September 1, 2019 by Mike Newman of Parhelion Underwriting  2018 saw the shipping industry take its first steps towards addressing the challenge of climate change when, at its 72nd session in April, IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) adopted an initial strategy to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from shipping by at least 50% by 2050. The United Nations body...
Read More

How Do ZEV Emissions Stack Up Against Super-Clean Gasoline and Diesel Engines?

August 21, 2019 , , ,

August 21, 2019 by Gary Yowell In 1990, California adopted the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Mandate designed to help achieve the state’s long-term emissions reduction goals by requiring manufacturers to sell specific quantities of battery-electric, fuel cell, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. The ZEV mandate has seen several modifications over the past three decades, and now there is a growing...
Read More

Parhelion’s new LCFS Insurance

August 1, 2019 ,

Several years ago, Parhelion introduced the Platinum Carbon Credit invalidation™ insurance product to the California Cap & Trade market and followed up with the Platinum RINs invalidation™ insurance policy for the U.S. Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) earlier this year. They have now entered another environmental commodity market – California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). We, at Stillwater, thought our readers...
Read More

IMO 2020: Current Futures Prices and Refiner Processing Options

June 26, 2019 ,

June 27, 2019 By Ralph Grimmer IMO 2020 implementation is six months away, and shipowners will likely start purchasing IMO 2020-compliant marine fuel (for vessels without onboard scrubbers) in the next three months. Stillwater Associates has offered a series of articles on various aspects of IMO 2020 over the past two years. In this month’s article, we provide an update...
Read More

California Gasoline Prices – Part 2

June 26, 2019 ,

June 26, 2019 By Dave Hackett Last month, I wrote about spot California gasoline prices and promised to write about California retail gasoline prices this month. As explained by my Petroleum Market Advisory Committee (PMAC) colleague, Professor Severin Borenstein, the retail gasoline prices in this state are higher than the U.S. average, even after deducting California’s high taxes and fees....
Read More

Knee-High by the Fourth of July?

June 22, 2019

June 22, 2019 By Adam Schubert Rising gasoline prices are making headlines, and though there are many forces at work, one of those contributing factors isn’t receiving the same buzz as others. Corn farmers are facing incredible challenges this year, creating upward pressure on ethanol prices which in-turn increase the prices of the final, blended gasoline. Stillwater is tracking the...
Read More

A Look at Oregon’s First Credit Clearance Market

June 20, 2019

June 20, 2019 By Jim Mladenik On May 31st, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issued a statement explaining the need for a Credit Clearance Market (CCM) to enable deficit holders in the Clean Fuels Program (CFP) to balance their accounts for the 2018 calendar year. Six entities (ARS Fresno, Conrad & Bischoff, Costco, Pilot, Pounder Oil Service, and...
Read More

-->