Engineering & Design
Can the downstream achieve growth and sustainability?
The global hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI) is transforming beyond typical technical and management forms. This industry is making progress, and it is achieving more sustainability practices. Suc..
Improve monitoring and troubleshooting of reciprocating compressors
The terms surveillance and monitoring for reciprocating compressors can be used interchangeably. With few exceptions, the monitoring and/or surveillance tasks are assigned to the unit operators. They ..
Consider olefin offgas as feed for ammonia production
Ammonia production using hydrogen (H2)-rich offgases is an established method, but it is practiced only in a handful of plants. The dynamics of new feedstocks in the petrochemicals industry coupled wi..
Choose the right metering technology for ethylene furnaces
An ethylene plant’s main purpose is to convert hydrocarbon feedstock, usually natural gas liquids or naphtha, into a “cracked gas” that contains ethylene and other higher value products..
HP Boxscore Construction Analysis: Refining overview: Leading nations by capacity
BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy 2014 showed total global refining capacity of just under 95 MMbpd. The top five countries with the highest refining capacities are the US, China, Russia, India and Japan. Combined, these countries account for nearly 45 MMbpd of capacity, which represents almost half of the world’s total refining capacity.
HP Global: Review of the Middle East refinery industry
The refining business in the Middle East (ME) is very different. The average utilization rates in the ME generally run at maximum and regularly exceed 90%. Also, unlike other regions, refining margins..
HP Project Management: Pipeline expansion uses rerating to debottleneck services
The Colonial Pipeline connects refineries primarily on the US Gulf Coast with customer service markets across the southern and eastern US. In 2010, Colonial’s 5,500-mi pipeline was transporting a..
HP Reliability: Consider suspended-access scaffolding
You may always have left scaffolding and access-to-work questions to an outside contractor to make the final decisions. But plant safety and timely work completion are everybody’s business. As a ..
HP Viewpoint: Refining industry developments—Growing opportunity and uncertainty
The U.S. has seen a dramatic change in energy production in just a relatively short period. Crude oil output has increased by about 55% in the last five years, according to data from the Energy Inform..
HP Industry Metrics: Industry Metrics
A bump in the US economy triggered strong gasoline use. Debottlenecking of pipelines allow more US midcontinent crude to reach US Gulf Coast refineries, which operated at the highest utilization rates..
- 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
- Technimont attends ground-breaking ceremony of Tengiz Gas separation Complex in Kazakhstan 11/20
- 42% of U.S. energy/critical infrastructure providers exposed to weaponized AI and email attacks 11/20
- EIA: U.S. crude stocks fall on higher demand, fuel inventories rise 11/20

