Africa
Eni to build crude oil refinery in Nigeria
ABUJA (Reuters) -- Italian oil company Eni plans to build a crude refinery in Nigeria with capacity of 150,000 bpd through its Agip subsidiary, the country's oil minister said on Tuesday.
South African probe finds oil reserves sold, not rotated
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) -- An investigation has found that 10 MMbbl of South African crude oil reserves sold at the end of 2015 was a straight sale and not part of stock rotation, as previously stated, Energy Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi said on Tuesday.
Equipment critical analysis: The need for an effective maintenance program
Oil refineries and large petrochemical plants contain thousands of pieces of process and utilities equipment that are subject to wear, erosion, deterioration, aging, etc., resulting in increasing breakdowns and outages. Imagine being a maintenance engineer and receiving 50 work orders during an overhaul with a limited budget, time, labor, spare parts, tools, machines, etc. How does that engineer prioritize the work?
Automation Strategies: Adopting the IIoT: How the industry needs to rethink IT and OT relationships
For the connected enterprise, what was once just a futuristic ideal is now becoming a reality. Step by step, organizations are beginning to put together the pieces of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
Global Project Data
A global LNG supply glut has put many mega-LNG projects in doubt in 2017. This predicament has many industry experts heralding it as the end of the mega-LNG project era.
Business Trends: Human reliability—a disruptive innovation
Annual bottom-line losses due to equipment failures total more than $100 MM at major refineries and petrochemical complexes. Corporate executives charge plant personnel with improving the reliability of the facility.
Editorial Comment: Maintenance—a value-added expense
This issue of <i>Hydrocarbon Processing</i> tackles one of the most integral aspects of the downstream industry (or any industry, for that matter): maintenance and reliability. These two terms go hand-in-hand and help to ensure efficient and safe operations.
Installation of liquid sulfur degassing processes in existing SRUs
Over the last 35 yr, more companies worldwide have installed liquid sulfur degassing processes in their sulfur recovery units (SRUs) to minimize the dangers of the release of hydrogen sulfide from the produced elemental sulfur.
A deeper examination of thermal expansion issues in process equipment and piping
Piping and process equipment that operate at high temperatures experience thermal expansion. If free thermal expansion is restrained, mechanical stresses are created within the component.
Vitol, Helios complete acquisition of 100% of Vivo Energy
Further to the acquisition of Shell’s 20% shareholding in Vivo Energy by Vitol Africa B.V., Helios Investment Partners, acting on behalf of the funds to which it is advisor, and Vitol own 100% of Vivo Energy.

- LanzaJet expands partnership with Microsoft to strengthen the company’s global growth 6/13
- Phelan Green Group's $2.6-B eMethanol project remains on schedule 6/13
- Algeria launches $7-B investment plan to expand hydrocarbon processing 6/13
- AFPM/API: President Trump officially overturns California (U.S.) gas car ban 6/12
- Decision on oil refiner Italiana Petroli's sale expected around end-June 6/12
- EIA: U.S. crude stocks fall, gasoline and distillate inventories rise as refining activity increases 6/12