Economics
HP Project Management: Outsourcing creates opportunities beyond engineering
The present “shale revolution” has generated opportunities in the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) industry that even a few years ago would have seemed fanciful. Billions of d..
HP Viewpoint: Going our way?—How the US will benefit from natural gas and fuel cell technology
A remarkable convergence is taking place in North America, as rising natural gas production meets the growing market for both stationary fuel cells providing power to businesses and the utility grid, ..
HP Viewpoint: The data revolution
The world’s population is expected to exceed 9 B people by 2040, and the corresponding energy demand for many of these newly affluent consumers will rise similarly. For the industrial sector, mor..
HP News
Qatar Petroleum and Shell cancel $6.5-B petrochemical project in Qatar Royal Dutch Shell and Qatar Petroleum (QP) have canceled the $6.5-B Al-Karaana petrochemical project in Qatar, which will signifi..
HP Industry Metrics
Mid-January saw the continued decline of monthly average Brent crude oil prices, which fell $17/bbl from November to a monthly average of $62/bbl. The continual price decrease reflects US tight oil pr..
HP People
ABB’s board of directors unanimously nominated Peter Voser to succeed Hubertus von Grünberg as chairman.
Multi-faceted approach on energy efficiency methods
The hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI) is a high-energy-consuming business. After cost for feedstocks, energy is the next largest operating expense for an HPI facility. Since the first oil embargo ..
Shale gas drives new opportunities for US downstream
This shift to lighter feeds for the SC will reduce the future availability of other petrochemical feedstocks—in particular, propylene.
DCS migration: Lessons learned
In 2005, TOTAL’s Port Arthur refinery (PAR), like many present-day refining and petrochemical facilities, found itself with an obsolete, at-capacity distributed control system (DCS). As shown in ..
Avoid counterproductive project management practices
For many years, reliability-focused engineers have observed flawed procurement processes for mechanical equipment. Many requirements are supposedly aimed at the lowest possible lifecycle cost; however..
- XRG to expand its global chemicals reach with takeover of Covestro 11/21
- thyssenkrupp Uhde selected by Dangote Fertilizer Ltd. to license four urea granulation units in Nigeria 11/21
- Indian and Chinese refineries are moving to comply with U.S. sanctions on Russia 11/21
- China's first coal-to-chemicals project with green hydrogen starts commercial operations 11/20
- Norsk e-Fuel and Braskem partner to turn captured carbon into long-lasting products 11/20
- Nigeria's Dangote refinery delays CDU maintenance to end of January 2026 11/20
