Maintenance & Reliability
Indorama Ventures Louisiana ethane cracker refurbishment ahead of schedule
Indorama Ventures’ majority-owned Lake Charles, Louisiana gas cracker received an air permit from US authorities, signifying an important step forward in maintaining the plant’s startup schedule.
Rompetrol to perform scheduled maintenance work at Petromidia Refinery
Rompetrol has begun scheduled maintenance at its Petromidia refinery and conducting an investigation into the August 22 explosion.
Phillips 66 delays planned SRU maintenance at Borger, Texas refinery
Phillips 66 delayed a planned maintenance on a sulfur recovery unit that was scheduled for Friday at its Borger, Texas, refinery.
Phillips 66 shuts gasoline-producing unit at Westlake refinery
Phillips 66 shut a gasoline-making reformer unit at its Westlake, Louisiana refinery earlier this month, and advanced planned work on the unit.
Saudi's Sipchem says production back to normal
A technical problem at Sipchem’s International Gases Co. unit, which had disrupted operations at two other units since mid-August, had been resolved and production was back to normal.
AESSEAL obtains 5-year service agreement with SABIC Geleen in the Netherlands
SABIC has awarded AESSEAL a 5-year managed reliability contract for their mechanical seals and seal support systems at the Geleen petrochemical complex in the Netherlands.
Exxon's Baton Rouge refinery delays shutdown
ExxonMobil Corp. put off plans to shut its Baton Rouge, Louisiana refinery after it managed to start a LPG processing unit in the adjoining chemical plant.
BP Whiting refinery reformer production cut for repairs
BP Plc. curtailed production on the reforming unit at their refinery in Whiting, Indiana, for repairs.
Reliability: Monitor electric motor vibration and optimize motor bearing lubricant application
Follow our discourse with a reliability professional employed by an owner-operator with a number of ammonia and urea plants in locations where blinding sandstorms are prone to occur.
Reliability: Overcome biases and challenges facing industry
When asked about the challenges facing the hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI), our answer was swift and direct: The trials we face are bundled, or can be found, in lessons some of us learned decades ago. However, lessons learned and explained decades ago were often disregarded by managers with a short-range focus.

- Sumitomo Chemical achieves scale-up of its process for producing propylene directly from ethanol 8/20
- EcoCortec, Jakob Schober GmbH awarded sustainability award for closed-loop circular films solution 8/20
- Vioneo awards Lummus polypropylene contract for world's first industrial scale fossil-free plastics from green methanol facility 8/19
- Research: Developing an energy-saving, carbon-capturing method for making ethylene glycol 8/19
- Emerson announced the release of its new Rosemount 3144S temperature transmitter 8/19
- Chinese refiners sweep up Russian oil after Indian demand falls 8/19