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Brazil's black market pipeline: Gangs hijack Petrobras' oil, fuel

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) -- In September, police investigating a wave of killings in the northern Rio de Janeiro suburbs followed a tip to the isolated scrubland near the massive Duque de Caxias oil refinery.

US East Coast refiners profit on winter gasoline at expense of summer stocks

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The US East Coast gasoline market looks set to begin the summer driving season with fewer barrels in storage than last year, as refiners have been profiting by producing winter grade gasoline longer than usual, trading sources said.

ChemChina, IPP team to supply turn-key chlor-alkali plants

PRINCETON JUNCTION, New Jersey and BEIJING -- International Process Plants (IPP) and ChemChina's Bluestar (Beijing) Chemical Machinery Company, Ltd. (BCMC) announce a partnership for IPP to provide new chlorine alkali plants designed and built by BCMC to industries around the world.

BP, DuPont JV Butamax announces acquisition of ethanol facility in Kansas

Butamax Advanced Biofuels LLC, a 50/50 JV between BP and DuPont, combining expertise in fuels with industrial biotechnology, announced the acquisition of Nesika Energy, LLC and its ethanol facility in Scandia, Kansas. Butamax will now start the engineering work to add bio-isobutanol capacity to the facility, while continuing to produce ethanol before and after adding this capacity.

Brazil's Braskem must face US lawsuit over Petrobras scandal

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Brazilian petrochemical company Braskem SA must face the main part of a shareholder lawsuit over its role in a massive bribery scandal that engulfed Brazil's state-owned oil company Petrobras SA, a US judge has ruled.

China to import first SGC, Thunderhorse oil from US in April

SINGAPORE/HOUSTON (Reuters) -- China will import Southern Green Canyon (SGC) and Thunderhorse crude oil from the Gulf Coast of the United States for the first time when a supertanker carrying 2 MM barrels arrives in April, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.

Business Trends: Standardized modularization—Drivers, challenges and perspectives in the oil and gas industry

RTS Ltd.: Eftimie, C.

Modularization is an alternative way of performing engineering aimed to reduce the number of interfaces, the total installed cost (TIC) and overall schedule length of a project, while optimizing the return on investment (ROI) and allowing standardization for similar future projects.

Industry Perspectives: What is the solution to comply with the IMO’s Global Sulfur Cap regulation?

In October 2016, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) announced that it will implement a new regulation that calls for the sulfur content in marine fuels to be reduced from 3.5% to 0.5%.

Viewpoint: Operational excellence—The path to world-class performance

Petrotechnics: Murray, P.

Why is operational excellence (OE) increasingly being recognized as the path to world-class performance?

Editorial Comment: Petrochemical project announcements top $80 B since 2014

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Nichols, Lee

Although new petrochemical project announcements have fallen over the past 3 yr, the global petrochemical sector will continue to see strong growth through the end of the decade.