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Asia/Pacific

Taiwan sees rising crude oil imports, falling LNG

The country's two refiners, government-owned CPC Corp. and privately run Formosa Petrochemical, refined a combined 3.76 million kiloliters of crude oil, up 4.26% from a year earlier, the bureau said in a monthly report. Refinery utilization fell to 62.54% in June from 66.08% in the previous month, it said.

Albemarle starts up new metallocene catalysts plant in South Korea

The plant will produce commercial quantities of single-site metallocene catalysts, including grades enhanced by Albemarle's proprietary ActivCat activation technology, as well as catalyst components such as methylaluminoxane (MAO). Investment details for the new facility were not disclosed.

Siemens to supply new compressor trains for three LNG plants in China

The compressor trains in the three plants each consists of a six-stage vertically-split compressor and a Siemens constant speed electric motor. This type of drive and control, using inlet guide vane assemblies, provides more efficient and reliable operation than conventional compressor solutions.

China posts record high in monthly crude imports

China, the second-largest oil consumer after the US, imported 26.11 million metric tons, or 6.17 million bpd, of crude in July, customs authorities said Thursday. This was 20% more than the same month last year, and up 18% from June, according to calculations by The Wall Street Journal.

Technip wins engineering for new China LNG plant

The contract covers the conceptual engineering study, the basic engineering design for its processes, BED and detailed design of the LNG storage tank, and procurement of key equipment.

Taiyo Oil picks UOP technology to improve flexibility at Japan petrochemical plant

The plant will install UOP's Tatoray process technology to boost yields of certain petrochemicals by more than 70%, along with adding flexibility to produce petrochemicals or gasoline as demand changes.

Global LNG spending to double in next five years

The increase in capital expenditures includes onshore and offshore projects to liquefy gas for export, import terminals to regasify LNG and LNG carriers for transporting the fuel. By region, Australasia and North America are expected to bring most of the new supply to market.

Sinochem delays trial runs at new Chinese refinery

Sinochem has pushed back trial operations at its refinery from June due to construction delays, a person familiar with the matter said. The new refinery, based in the Chinese port city of Quanzhou, has the capacity to process 12 million metric tons, or 240,000 bpd, of crude oil each year.

Optimize your compressor maintenance program

Consultant: Geitner, F. K.

One deviation alone might not be enough to bring on a compressor failure, but, when several more deviations combine, the failure risk is known to increase exponentially.

Case history: Failure analysis of a syngas compressor

SABIC Technology Centre: van Zyl, G.  |  Al-Zahrani, E.  |  Al-Meshari, A.  |  Al-Haroon, M.

A first-stage impeller in a synthetic gas compressor failed after 20 years of service. The compressor is a six-stage centrifugal compressor driven by a steam turbine. This case history discusses the i..