Crude oil
Russian ESPO Blend oil jumps to premium on higher demand from Chinese refiners
Russia's Far East ESPO Blend oil grade has firmed to premium against the Brent benchmark on delivery basis for the first time since November 2023 on higher demand from Chinese refiners cooling India's buying.
Russia's Novatek launches new condensate unit at Ust-Luga complex
Russian energy company Novatek has launched the new processing unit at its gas condensate complex at the Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga in the last third of the August.
China's new Yulong refinery runs crude unit at 60%–70%
China's latest greenfield refinery, Shandong Yulong Petrochemical, is running one of its two crude units at 60%–70%, as local government announced its official startup on Wednesday.
Thermal decomposition of particulate mercury sulfides in petroleum—Part 1
Traces of particulate mercury sulfide (HgS) in stabilized crude oils transform to elemental mercury below 400°C in refinery distillation units. The authors evaluated this transformation and measured reaction rates and activation energies in crude oil and Hg-spiked mineral oil, using glass vessels at atmospheric pressure and a microunit at 1,000 psig.
Deliver sustainable benefits through site-wide process digital twins
Refiners have used offline process models for decades. The next generation of solutions is anticipated to operate automatically, integrate with legacy systems and provide transparency site-wide.
Rio Tinto pilots Pongamia seed oil as a feedstock for renewable diesel
Rio Tinto will develop Pongamia seed farms in Australia as part of a new biofuels pilot. The project will explore the potential of Pongamia seed oil as a feedstock for renewable diesel.
China's newest refiner Yulong starts up crude unit
China's Shandong Yulong Petrochemical on Friday began starting up one of two new 200,000-bpd crude units in eastern China, marking the refinery's official launch after four years of construction.
Global refiners face profit slump as new plants come online
Oil refiners in Asia, Europe and the U.S. are facing a drop in profitability to multi-year lows, marking a downturn for an industry that had enjoyed surging returns post-pandemic and underlining the extent of the current slowdown in global demand.
Indian refiners jointly negotiating for 2025 Russian oil supplies
Indian refiners are jointly negotiating to purchase Russian oil for next year, with suppliers mostly using Russian insurance for crude priced above a $60 per barrel (bbl) cap.
SOCAR awards NEXTCHEM two contracts to upgrade/expand Heydar Aliyev refinery in Azerbaijan
SOCAR has awarded NEXTCHEM two contracts to upgrade and expand the capacity of the Heydar Aliyev Oil refinery industrial complex in Baku, Azerbaijan.
- ITT to acquire SPX Flow for > $4.77 B, expanding leadership in highly engineered components and adjacent flow technologies 12/5
- MOL Group introduces eco-friendly Bag-in-Box packaging for lubricants 12/5
- Russia and India sign deal to build urea plant in Russia 12/5
- U.S. liquid fuels groups announce progress on E15, small refinery exemption reform 12/5
- Million Air and Avfuel bring SAF to Austin, Texas (U.S.) 12/5
- Chinese refiners buy oil from storage, raise output with fresh import quota 12/5

