Refining
Shell to buy fuel from Petroplus French refinery
The company will use the France refinery owned by insolvent Swiss-based refiner Petroplus to process crude oil for six months, said French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
TNK-BP to review operations at unprofitable Ukraine refinery
Russian oil major TNK-BP, half-owned by BP, said Friday that operations at the Lisichansk refinery in Ukraine have become unprofitable and it plans to further review its options for increasing efficiency. The refinery has a capacity of over 7 million tpy of crude oil.
Crude tank explodes at Texas fuel storage terminal
Firefighters have extinguished a crude oil tank fire that began Thursday night at a fuel storage terminal in Galveston, Texas, according to news media reports. The facility has the capacity to handle 1.25 million bbl of liquid cargo storage and 350,000 tons of dry flat storage, according to the Galveston Daily News.
Calumet, MDU to explore building diesel refinery in North Dakota
MDU Resources and Calumet say they will explore the feasibility of jointly building and operating a 20,000 bpd diesel refinery in southwestern North Dakota. Site selection, permitting, crude oil feed procurement, marketing and engineering studies are currently underway.
Lower crude exports from Iran could trigger 30% spike in oil prices - IMF
A halt of Iran's oil exports to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries could trigger a 20%-30% spike in oil prices, an International Monetary Fund official said. The EU last month said it would ban all purchases of oil from Iran for countries within the union.
ExxonMobil says oil, gas reserves higher in 2011
ExxonMobil said Thursday the company's 2011 proved oil-and-gas reserves inched up compared with the previous year. The bulk of reserves additions came from the Kearl Expansion Project in Canada, which totaled 1 billion oil-equivalent bbl. Additions were also made in the US, Nigeria and Indonesia.
Obama defends energy policy, blames Middle East turmoil for rising US gasoline
President Barack Obama defended his energy policy from Republican attacks that he has not done enough to counter the recent run-up in gasoline prices. Obama said that more drilling will not bring down the price at the pump. In fact, the US is producing more oil than at any time in the last eight years, he said.
Tesoro refinery workers reject USW labor contract, strike possible
Union workers at three more Tesoro refineries have rejected new labor contracts, setting up the potential for a strike. A general strike at Tesoro's refineries still negotiating could shut down 500,000 bpd of refining capacity, though it wouldn't spread to refineries run by other companies.
Chesapeake plans to double US production of oil, liquids by 2015
Chesapeake Energy said it plans to more than double its oil and liquids production by 2015 as the natural gas giant aims to become one of top five US oil producers. The company plans to produce about 250,000 bpd of oil and natural gas liquids by 2015, up from about 104,000 bpd in the fourth quarter.
Hess, PdVSA finish shutdown of Hovensa refinery venture in Virgin Islands
Hovensa completed the previously-announced shutdown of its 350,000 bpd refinery on the US Virgin Island of St. Croix, the company said. The oil-fuel refinery is a joint venture between oil company Hess and Petroleos de Venezuela (PdVSA), the state-owned oil company of Venezuela.
- Borouge, Borealis, CFF and PMS join forces to study polyolefin recycling ecosystem in Indonesia 2/10
- bp's Gelsenkirchen refinery attracts buyer's interest from Klesch 2/10
- Fire at Baiji refinery contained, Iraq's Somo says 2/10
- Hengli Petrochemical sets up Dubai trading subsidiary in expansion 2/10
- Canadian airlines suspend Cuba flights as island set to run out of jet fuel 2/10
- Idemitsu Kosan plans maintenance at Keihin refinery in April 2/10
