"Refinery Attacks Shift Global Energy Crisis to Fuel and Sulphur Shortages"
Crack spread
the price difference between crude oil and refined petroleum products, showing refining margins.
Sulphur recovery
removing sulphur from crude oil and natural gas during refining to make cleaner fuels.
Global energy shocks have traditionally centred on crude oil supply, such as the 1973 Arab oil embargo or the price spike after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, when Brent crude touched its March 2022 peak. The present disruption from the prolonged Russia-Ukraine war and the widening West Asia conflict behaves differently. Long-range drone and missile strikes are hitting refineries in Russia and Iran, not crude wells, damaging the downstream units that convert crude into diesel, petrol, jet fuel, and byproducts such as sulphur. This has pushed refined-product prices up faster than crude itself, visible in record crack spreads, the price difference between crude oil and refined petroleum products.
Refining crude oil also yields furnace oil, a heavy residual product that industries use to generate power, and whose combustion is a well-known source of sulphur emissions. Removing sulphur from crude and natural gas during processing, done precisely to make cleaner, low-emission fuels, produces recovered sulphur as a byproduct. This sulphur is the principal raw material for manufacturing sulphuric acid, one of the most widely used industrial chemicals. When refineries and gas-processing plants in major producing regions are attacked, sulphur output falls just as sharply as fuel output, and this squeeze is now rippling into India's fertiliser economy.
Rock phosphate, the primary ore for phosphorus, cannot be applied directly to soil because plants cannot absorb it in that raw form. It must be reacted with sulphuric acid to become water-soluble, producing Single Super Phosphate, Di-Ammonium Phosphate, and other complex phosphatic fertilisers. India depends on imported sulphur, historically priced well below $200 per tonne, to keep this chain running alongside imports of finished phosphatic fertiliser. With sustained attacks on energy infrastructure in Russia and Persian Gulf countries choking refinery and gas-processing output, sulphur prices have crossed $1,000 per tonne, a jump that directly raises the cost of producing and importing phosphatic and complex fertilisers. …
With reference to furnace oil, consider the following statements:
1.It is a product of oil refineries.
2.Some industries use it to generate power.
3.Its use causes sulphur emissions into environment.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
Consider the following statements regarding sulphur recovered during oil refining and natural gas processing:
1.It is a key raw material for manufacturing sulphuric acid.
2.Sulphuric acid is used to convert rock phosphate into water-soluble phosphatic fertilisers.
3.India is entirely self-sufficient in sulphur production and does not import it.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
Consider the following statements about the current global energy crisis arising from the Russia-Ukraine war and the West Asia conflict:
1.The crisis is characterised more by shortages of crude oil than of refined products like diesel and jet fuel.
2.Attacks on refineries reduce the supply of refined products without necessarily reducing crude oil supply.
3.A rising crack spread indicates that refined product prices are increasing faster than crude oil prices.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
The term 'crack spread', sometimes seen in the news, refers to:
Match List-I with List-II and select the correct answer using the codes given below:
List-I (Item)
A.Furnace oil
B.Sulphur
C.Crack spread
D.Rock phosphate
List-II (Description)
1.Byproduct removed from refined fuels, used as sulphuric acid feedstock
2.Ore requiring sulphuric acid treatment before use as fertiliser
3.Heavy residual fuel used for industrial power generation
4.Indicator of refining margin
Which of the following best describes India's current position in global petroleum refining?
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