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

Economics

Column: China's fuel exports less worrisome than crude costs for refiners

China's booming fuel exports have contributed to a structural lowering of margins for the region's refiners, but fluctuations are still mostly linked to crude prices.

ExxonMobil defends handling of Torrance refinery outage

ExxonMobil is defending its handling of an outage at its Los Angeles refinery following a blast in February 2015 after a prominent trading company told a state commission that the process had lacked transparency.

NAC acquires Swiss Heights Engineering, Bellelli Group and Petrochem Industrie Group

NAC Global Technologies Inc. finalized its acquisition of Swiss Heights Engineering, a company that owns the Bellelli Group and Petrochem Industrie Group.

LNG slump, cost cutting spur rare output curb at Australian plant

Spending cuts and weak global liquefied natural gas prices have forced the operator of the Gladstone LNG project in Australia to consider running the plant at less than full tilt.

Westlake receives regulatory approval to acquire Axiall

Westlake have received all regulatory approvals required for the acquisition of Axiall Corp., including clearance from both the US and Canadian competition authorities.

Mexico announces launch of cap-and-trade pilot program

Mexico will launch a year-long simulation of a cap-and-trade program in November as a test run for a national carbon market expected to launch in 2018.

Icahn urges EPA to change renewable fuel credit market

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has called on the top US environmental regulator to make changes to a market for renewable fuel credits or else risk "the mother of all short squeezes" that could bankrupt refiners.

Brazil seizes $655 M in assets from Odebrecht, OAS, executives

Brazil's federal auditing court, ordered the seizure of about $655 M worth of assets from engineering firms Odebrecht SA and OAS SA and some of their executives, to recoup losses from contracts related to the country's biggest ever corruption scandal.

US crude stocks fall unexpectedly in week: EIA

US crude stocks fell unexpectedly last week, while gasoline stocks decreased more than expected and distillate inventories rose, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.

South African fuel strike ends as union signs new pay offer

South Africa's petroleum sector employers and striking workers signed a new two-year wage deal on Wednesday, ending a three-week strike that caused limited supply disruptions.