Refining
Flurry of vessels booked from Mideast to Europe after Dutch refinery outage
SINGAPORE (Reuters) — Oil traders are rushing to secure vessels to ship refined fuel from the Middle East to Europe after a Dutch refinery outage made the route profitable, pushing freight rates to multi-month highs, traders and shipbrokers said on Thursday.
Finnish oil refiner Neste reports lower profits, shares fall
HELSINKI (Reuters) — Finnish oil refiner and biofuel producer Neste on Thursday reported a drop in second-quarter earnings due to expiry of a US biofuel tax break plus the impact of maintenance stoppages at its conventional refineries.
West African oil booms as refineries cash in on high margins
LONDON (Reuters) — Booming refinery profits are helping West African oil producers sell cargoes quickly, aided by a shortage in certain types of crude amid OPEC production cuts and Venezuelan troubles.
PDVSA's refining network to work at 44% of capacity in August
HOUSTON (Reuters) — Venezuela's oil company PDVSA expects its refining network to work at 44% of capacity in August due to a lack of light crude and spare parts and planned maintenance work, according to an internal report from the state-run firm seen by Reuters on Tuesday.
Brazil fuel, lubricant imports surge 57% in July
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) — Brazil's fuel and lubricant imports shot up 57.3% in July from the same month in 2016 to $1.522 B, government data showed on Tuesday.
US oil refiner HollyFrontier's profit tops estimates
(Reuters) — US oil refiner HollyFrontier Corp on Wednesday reported a quarterly profit that handily beat analysts' estimates, helped by higher production and refinery margins.
Rethinking the risk mitigation process and revitalizing operational safety
For the past 2 yr, oil prices have been in free-fall. At the time of writing, the WTI price is around $50/bbl, up slightly since OPEC’s May 2017 announcement to extend its September 2016 production cut of 2.2%.
Identify the cause of liquid maldistribution inside packed beds
Diagnosing liquid maldistribution problems inside packed beds that can cause mass transfer efficiency loss is a challenge to process engineers.
Role statements needed for reliability job functions
Experience shows that written role statements impart great value to industries that have reliability professionals on staff.
Does your control valve talk?
Pneumatic operated control valves (POCVs) are consistently the most used control final element for process control across most industries—in some cases, they are also part of the safety instrumented systems (SISs) layer.
- UPM unlocks new bio-based markets as Leuna biorefinery produces its first commercial product 12/19
- Stamicarbon awarded technology licensing contract for new urea plant in Eastern China 12/19
- Ford takes $19.5-B writedown on EV business 12/19
- Babcock & Wilcox awarded $40-MM contract for advanced wet gas scrubbing technology at Canadian petroleum refinery 12/19
- Aarti Industries secures methanol and toluene feedstock supply through multiple long-term contracts 12/19
- bp picks first outsider CEO Meg O'Neill after abrupt Auchincloss exit 12/19

