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Economics

Dominican Republic ratifies terms of Odebrecht's $184-MM plea deal

SAO PAULO (Reuters) -- A judge in the Dominican Republic on Wednesday approved terms of a $184 MM fine on Odebrecht SA, which sought a plea deal after admitting to bribing officials to win contracts in the country.

EIA: US retail gasoline prices this summer expected slightly higher than 2016

Drivers in the US will pay an average of $2.46 per gal this summer for regular gasoline, according to forecasts in EIA’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). Gasoline prices from April through September are expected to be 23 cents/gal higher than the average price last summer, but this price is still nearly 70 cents/gal below the previous five-year average. The gasoline price increase this summer primarily reflects slightly higher forecast crude oil prices.

Linde-Praxair merger deal falls behind schedule

MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) -- Linde and Praxair's $65 B merger talks are facing legal complexities that mean the agreement will not be finalized as planned before Linde's annual shareholder meeting on May 10, a source familiar with the situation said.

Indian state-run companies mull daily fuel price change

MUMBAI (Reuters) -- India's state-run oil marketing companies, which control over 90 percent of the retail fuel market in the country, are mulling a plan that would allow daily changes in the price of automotive fuels, Economic Times reported on Friday.

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%.

Refining: Uncertainty grips South Africa’s Clean Fuels Program

Contributing Editor: Oirere, S.

The planned upgrading of oil refineries in South Africa to produce Euro 5-specified fuels will likely take longer than initially anticipated.

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.

Process safety incidents, cognitive biases and critical thinking

Primatech, Inc.: Baybutt, P.

Process hazard analysis (PHA) is performed to identify possible hazard scenarios that may occur in a process.

Calculate gasoline RVP seasonal change giveaway economics

Refinery Automation Institute, LLC: Barsamian, A.  |  Curcio, E.

Despite high demand and depressed refining margins, the US is in the midst of a glut of gasoline. This predicament is causing a rush to convert summer gasoline into cheaper winter gasoline, in the hope that using cheap butane and higher Reid vapor pressure (RVP) specs will increase refining profits.