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Americas

HP Construction Profile: European refiner makes significant processing advancements

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Romanow, Stephany

At the Sannazzaro de’ Burgondi refinery, Eni is moving forward with leading-edge technological breakthroughs to produce “clean” transportation fuels. This refinery has a balanced 190,00..

Use wireless valve-monitoring technology to your advantage

Pentair Valves & Controls: Sequeira, T.

Financial pressures, combined with increasing safety and environmental requirements, have resulted in a significant increase in the need for valve-position monitoring in industrial plants. However, th..

Technip wins hydrogen reformer work for refinery upgrade in Venezuela

The contract covers the complete engineering, fabrication, modularization and procurement. This project will utilize Technip's reformers to produce high-purity hydrogen and export steam, and the latest nitrogen oxide reduction technology to ensure minimum emissions.

BP finishes crude unit upgrade at Whiting refinery

The Whiting facility is BP's largest US refinery. Work at the plant has been ongoing since 2008 and is now 95% done, the company said. Projects included a reconfiguration of the 250,000-bpd crude distillation unit. The project also included the addition of new coking capacity and processing units.

US sees improvement in monthly chemicals output

The ACC reports that during May, chemical production rose in the Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and Southeast regions. Chemical production was flat in the Gulf Coast, Midwest, and West Coast.

Refinery watch: Planned and unplanned US outages (3)

Citgo Petroleum said June 27 that its Lemont, Ill., refinery has resolved "support system disruptions" it experienced during storms, with no production impact. Valero reported unplanned flaring at its Wilmington, Calif., refinery June 26 due to an issue with the third-party hydrogen plant that supplies it.

BP fights against 'inflated' US Gulf oil spill payouts

BP has also taken out full page advertisements in the main United States newspapers, including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, saying that the interpretation of the settlement they agreed last year has resulted in payments to businesses that didn't suffer losses from the oil spill.

INEOS plans world-scale linear alpha olefins plant for US Gulf Coast

INEOS plans to build a new 350,000 tpy linear alpha olefins plant in the US Gulf Coast region, the company announced on Thursday. The project is targeted for completion by the end of 2016. Beyond then, it could be expanded by an additional 50%, said Bob Learman, CEO of INEOS Oligomers.

Investigators blame lax oversight for recent Texas fertilizer explosion

The CSB said the West explosion was caused by an intense fire in a wooden warehouse building that led to the detonation of about 30 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in wooden bins. The building had no sprinklers or fire detection systems, so the fire was "intense and out of control".

Williams links deadly Louisiana olefins explosion to propylene fractionator area

Williams said it has key personnel on site to begin plans to make repairs, undertake a previously-planned maintenance turnaround and complete a 600 million lb/year expansion of the olefins operations. The plant remains shut down and the expansion work is temporarily suspended.