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Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (70087)	8/4/2008 5:27:52 AM
From: Elroy Jetson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

The combined catalytic cracking and isomerization process Chevron calls Isomaxing is more than economical and has been in use since one of Chevron's past CEO's George M. Keller created it while a scientist at Chevron Research in the 1950s. Heavy California crude oil is mixed with natural gas and Chevron's proprietary catalysts at roughly 600 F in the Isomax unit in Richmond CA, El Segundo CA and Venezuelan heavy crude is mixed with natural gas in the Pascagoula MS refinery. Isomaxing has long been a key component of Chevron's profitability. The newer low-sulfur requirements for fuel were of no significance because Chevron had for decades already needed to meet these targets prior to the Isomax cat cracker, at the very beginning of the refining process. The reason being that excess sulfur reduced the life of the catalyst before it needed to be reprocessed. So low-sulfur fuel requirements finally put other refiners in the same cost basis as Chevron in terms of sulfer removal. Chevron pushed hard for low-sulfuer fuel and many wondered why Chevron was at the forefront of the environmental movement - it served multiple objectives. .