Environment & Safety Gas Processing/LNG Maintenance & Reliability Petrochemicals Process Control Process Optimization Project Management Refining

Asia/Pacific

HP Industry Metrics

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Rhodes, Mike

US refinery utilization rates have returned to summer operating levels. Crude oil pricing supports higher cracking margins for gasoline in US and European markets. Asian margins fell as increasing sup..

Toyo picks Intergraph solutions to help construct new Malaysia cracker

When completed, RAPID will consist of a 300,000-bpd refinery and petrochemical complex with a combined capacity of producing 7.7 million tpy of various grades of products, including differentiated and specialty chemicals products such as synthetic rubbers and high-grade polymers.

Oman to invest $7B on new Indonesia refining, petrochemicals complex

The refinery and petrochemical complex would be built in Indonesia's Riau province, with the oil products being purchased by state-owned Pertamina. Groundbreaking is expected to begin in 2016.

Mexichem opens new India pressure pipes plant

The location of the Hyderabad plant in South India allows Mexichem to position itself for exports to Southeast Asia, to serve customers in South India and to capture new business opportunities.

India’s Bharat Petroleum puts out hydrocracker fire at Numaligarh refinery

The refinery has been closed for about a month for routine maintenance, Numaligarh said, adding that the fire occurred during the startup of units.

China’s CNOOC begins exports of gasoline, diesel

China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) has received government approval to begin international exports of diesel and gasoline cargoes in early May.

Jacobs wins work on Huntsman’s polyetheramine expansion in Singapore

The Jurong Island facility expansion is expected to enable backward integration to produce polyethers from locally-sourced feedstocks, according to Huntsman officials.

Reduce maintenance and production losses by benchmarking asset performance

Meridium, Inc.: Naik, M.

Benchmarking can help operators identify assets with chronic failures, and it can also drive failure elimination efforts to improve their reliability and availability while cost cutting.

Consider new labyrinth seals to optimize compressor operations

Flexware, Inc.: Gresh, M. T.
John Crane Engineered Bearings: Whalen, J. K.

Degradation of labyrinth seals in centrifugal impellers can have a significant impact on not only compressor power consumption but also on plant production rate. Upgrading to rub-tolerant seals can be..

Maximize energy recovery with small steam turbines

Energent: Kaupert, K.
Energent Corp.: Krull, R.  |  Iles, R.

Using smaller turbines (50 kW to 300 kW) can aid system efficiency and help conserve energy. We investigate examples in which the application of smaller steam turbines provided return on investment within two years.