Refining
IRPC ’13: Indian Oil shows off Panipat complex
The fourth annual International Refining and Petrochemical Conference kicked off Tuesday with a tour of Indian Oil's integrated complex near Panipat in northern India.
Refinery watch: Planned and unplanned US outages
Valero reported the fluid catalytic cracking unit at its Benicia refinery is back at planned rates after a brief outage June 29. Tesoro reported a major unit startup at its Martinez, Calif. refinery July 2. Scheduled maintenance on a unit at ExxonMobil's Torrance, Calif. refinery could cause flaring, Exxon said July 1.
Japan looks to tighten gasoline market by lowering future refinery runs
"We want to tighten the gasoline market by keeping runs a little lower than last year," said Akitsugu Takahashi, senior vice president of JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp., Japan's largest refiner by capacity. "Gasoline margins (in the domestic market) have been very slim because of oversupply."
Brazil's Petrobras sets new company record for refinery production
The record volume was volume is 30,000 bbl more than the previous record. This strong performance has enabled a reduction in oil product imports and reflects the high level of operational efficiency at its refineries and in the integrated management of downstream operations.
China's Cnooc considers investment in Uganda refinery, pipeline plan
Cnooc has expressed interest in investing in Uganda's oil refinery and a crude export pipeline. The Chinese company reportedly expressed interest in two projects following a meeting between company chairman Wang Yilin and Uganda's prime minister Amama Mbabazi.
REG starts up new biorefinery in Northeast Texas
The largest US biodiesel producer hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the completion of major upgrades at the New Boston biorefinery, located about 150 miles east of Dallas. REG acquired the 15 million gal/year refinery in November 2012 after it had been shut down for nearly four years.
South Sudan resumes crude exports from Sudan
Landlocked South Sudan has resumed crude oil shipments from Port Sudan for the first time in 18 months, as the two former civil war foes make renewed efforts to diffuse the latest spat over the use of transit oil facilities, the main obstacle for the newly independent nation's oil exports.
Asia: Future challenges and opportunities for refining sector
Securing the right quality of crude oil, increasing refinery competitiveness and adapting to fast-changing inter-regional trade dynamics are some of the area's key challenges.
Enhance refinery profitability with modeling innovations
Several improvements are on the horizon, which will add powerful optimization capabilities into the process modeler’s simulation work space in areas like heat integration, column optimization and economics.
Innovative solutions for processing shale oils
New monitoring protocols can provide advance warning of any negative aspects of shale oil processing, thus enabling the refiner to take corrective measures early.
- Argentina raises biofuel prices for domestic market 7/14
- Technip Energies' develops low-emission furnace design to reduce the carbon footprint of ethylene production 7/14
- Biofuel demand to soak up more than half of U.S. soyoil production next year, USDA says 7/14
- Russia's June seaborne oil product exports down 3.4% m/m 7/14
- Serbia seeks fifth U.S. sanctions waiver for Russian-owned oil firm NIS 7/14
- EIA: U.S. hydrocarbon production supported by export growth in long-term projections 7/14
