Americas
California probes oil refiners for gas price manipulation
California has issued subpoenas to Valero Energy Corp. and Chevron Corp. as part of a probe into whether oil refiners in the state have manipulated gasoline prices since 2014.
US Energy Secretary believes oil supply and demand should be in balance by 2017
The global oil market should see supply and demand in balance by 2017 though it will remain structurally well-supplied for the next couple of years, US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said.
Refining: Refinery investments focus on ultra-low-sulfur gasoline
Mexican oil company Pemex recently announced major refinery improvement projects that will represent a total investment of $23 B over the next three years.
Industry Metrics
US refinery utilization rates have increased in some areas following the peak of maintenance season.
Secure the best benefits from C4 hydrocarbon processing—Part 1: Separation sequences
Crude C<sub>4</sub> streams from the steam cracker unit or the fluidized catalytic cracker unit contain valuable hydrocarbons, such as butadiene and C<sub>4</sub> olefins.
Global Project Data
According to <i>Hydrocarbon Processing’s </i> Construction Boxscore Database, there were nearly 90 new project announcements from January 2015 to June 2015.
A new solution to the challenges of crude selection and scheduling
The state-of-the-art approach to solving the crude selection and scheduling problem is to separate the two challenges.
EIA: China diesel exports grow as refining industry, economy change
China is reforming its refining sector by liberalizing import and export restrictions on crude oil and petroleum products, allowing for increased competition in the domestic transportation fuels market.
GlobalData: Planned projects poised to raise global propylene capacity levels
China and the US are the primary drivers for expanded global capacity that is estimated to increase to almost 130 MMtpy by 2020.
New US PE capacity to help meet rising LatAm demand
Latin America's demand for polyethylene is expanding, but the region's existing and planned PE capacity is expected to fall short of demand.
- Pemex to invest $5 B to revive petrochemicals and fertilizer industries 6/8
- Aramco selects McDermott for project management consultancy long-term agreement 6/8
- Celanese to optimize engineered materials compounding footprint in Asia region 6/8
- Uniper and Canada’s Ksi Lisims LNG sign Letter of Interest for LNG supply 6/8
- Consortium highlights progress in synthetic kerosene, and the gap to large-scale availability 6/8
- Xylem to provide advanced water systems to Dow's Path2Zero project 6/8
