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Americas

Overcome barriers to proper planning and scheduling

T.A. Cook Consultants Inc.: Wanichko, J.

Planning and scheduling must work hand-in-hand for a turnaround, outage or shutdown to be executed to budget and schedule. Unless proper diligence is given up-front to planning and scheduling, no amou..

Exxon pipeline ruptures in Arkansas, spilling crude

Exxon said the weekend breach caused a few thousand barrels of oil to spill into Mayflower, a town of less than 3,000 about 25 miles northwest of Little Rock. The Environmental Protection Agency called it a "major spill," a category that includes any spill larger than 250 barrels.

Kinder Morgan to expand methanol storage tanks at Louisiana liquids terminal

The assets will provide critical marine, rail and truck access in support of a 1 million tpy methanol production plant being relocated by Methanex from Chile, South America. The terminal is expected to be in service during the second half of 2014, coinciding with the anticipated startup of the relocated plant.

Gasoline prices fall on high supply, lower crude

HP Editorial Staff: HP News Services

US pump prices for gasoline are dropping as refiners are boosting production and crude-oil prices are down from a year earlier, according to domestic travel group AAA.

US refiners decry latest EPA proposal for tougher auto pollution standards

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce the proposal as early as Friday. It is expected to require refiners to reduce the amount of sulfur in gasoline to 10 parts per million, down from the current standard of 30 ppm, people familiar with the issue said.

Chevron cuts executive pay amid safety woes

HP Editorial Staff: HP News Services

Chevron's board is cutting compensation for its CEO and other top executives in the wake of a string of accidents and other operational problems since late 2011.

Suncor, Total kill plan for Alberta bitumen upgrader

Amid the ongoing US oil boom, Suncor executives said it may not make sense to spend money on a new upgrading facility, which was to be located in Alberta. Instead, Suncor said it could be more economical to simply send unprocessed heavy bitumen to refiners equipped to handle it.

Kinder Morgan to boost US condensate processing after BP throughput deal

Kinder Morgan's processing facility will split condensate into its various components, such as light and heavy naphtha, kerosene, diesel and gas oil, and can be expanded pending additional market demand, the company said. The new investment will increase its total capacity to 100,000 bpd.

US refinery use signals stronger crude demand

HP Editorial Staff: HP News Services

A better-than-expected increase in last week's US refinery utilization rates is welcome relief to recent concerns that weak demand was contributing to a surplus of crude oil.

ExxonMobil licenses tubular process to Sasol for Louisiana polyethylene project

Used worldwide by ExxonMobil Chemical and its licensees, the company's high-pressure tubular process has been in operation since 1968 and has a long history of improvements and capacity expansion. The company also licenses autoclave technology for producing LDPE.