Why Refinery Compliance Capex Is the Only Capex Happening Right Now And what it means for your facility By Timothy Porritt · Porritt Inc. · August 28, 2026 The $12–15 Threshold Where Optimization Becomes Survival Crack spreads are at $12–15 per barrel. That’s not a number for spreadsheets. That’s the threshold where independent refineries stop
Hyperscalers have contracted 9.8 GW of nuclear for AI. The NRC just cleared the first non-light-water reactor in 40 years. Here is what actually changed.
AI’s Nuclear Reckoning: Why Data Centers Are Buying Fission Now Read More »
OSHA Mechanical Integrity Enforcement Shift + Financial Cost Quantification OSHA’s mechanical integrity enforcement just tightened. 40% of all Process Safety Management (PSM) violations in 2026 audits are mechanical integrity (MI) related—overage inspections, missing thickness-measurement records, undocumented QA on pressure vessels. With the 2026 violation cap at $9,259 per violation, a single refinery audit can stack
OSHA Mechanical Integrity Enforcement Tightening Read More »
Domain Expertise Moat in AI-Native Product Design (Refinery CAD Focus) Most CAD tools are built by people who’ve never designed a refinery. You can tell the moment you open them. A CAD system built by a graphics engineer solves “how do I render millions of points in real time?” That’s a hard problem. But it’s
Domain Expertise in Refinery CAD Design (AI Products) Read More »
Distillate Margin Window + Turnaround Economics Diesel margins just hit their July peak. $26–35/bbl is not typical summer noise. We’re running 90%+ Gulf Coast refinery utilization on distillate strength while inventories sit historically low. Export demand to South America East Coast is keeping pressure on the system. This is the window that changes how you
Distillate Margin Window & Turnaround Economics Read More »
The U.S. removed 1.2 million bpd of refining capacity in 15 months. Why diesel and jet fuel are tightening into a structural shortage — and what it means.
The Distillate Squeeze: Refinery Closures and the Coming Diesel Shortage Read More »
TRISO coated-particle fuel gives every grain of uranium its own ceramic pressure vessel — the physics that lets a reactor sit beside the load it powers.
TRISO: The Fuel That Lets a Reactor Sit Next to a Data Center Read More »
The modular refinery market hit $2.4B. Nigeria has 25 licensed projects. The U.S. has closed 1.1M BPD of capacity since 2020 and built almost no modular replacements. The gap is a capital structure problem.
US refining capacity has fallen by 1 million BPD in 12 months while the Strait of Hormuz is under naval blockade. The oil price is noise. The capacity math is the signal.
The US Naval Blockade Changed the Headline. The Capacity Math Changed the Market. Read More »
