据世界石油12月16日伦敦报道，自2017年以来，加工墨西哥湾生产的高硫原油一直没有这么高的利润，这主要归功于廉价的页岩气。

虽然今年冬天欧洲和亚洲都在努力应对天然气价格的飙升，但美国廉价的供应使炼油厂能够提取低成本的氢气，以从用含硫原油制成的燃料中去除硫磺。这意味着几个月前那些还不受欢迎的原油等级，现在又有了需求。

与此同时，疫情的复苏提振了对汽油和柴油的需求，这两种燃料的基准价格在10月份达到2014年以来的最高水平。上周，政府对石油产品每周需求量的衡量达到创纪录水平。

根据行业咨询公司OILA的数据显示，这有助于美国墨西哥湾沿岸炼油厂以四年来最高的利润率将含硫原油加工成燃料。

随着欧佩克恢复其主要重硫原油供应，美国炼油商也在利用高硫原油相对于低硫原油的更大折扣。例如，墨西哥的玛雅高硫原油交易价格比美国路易斯安那低硫原油每桶低近10美元。

Rapidan Energy 全球石油服务主管扎卡里·罗杰斯 (Zachary Rogers) 表示，由于OPEC+ 恢复供应，高硫低硫原油价差扩大是对含硫原油重新产生兴趣的另一个原因。

对含硫原油的兴趣回归可能正是美国政府目前所需要的，因为其于周五宣布一项新的销售招标，从战略石油储备中提供1800万桶含硫原油。第一次SPR交易报价向埃克森美孚借出480万桶。

郝芬 译自 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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