Maintenance & Reliability
Russia's idle oil refining capacity estimated up 50% in March from previous plan
Russia's offline primary oil refining capacity in March was revised up 49.7% from the initial plan for this month to 2.96 million metric tons amid drone attacks.
Marathon to begin planned maintenance at Robinson, Illinois refinery
The refinery's primary crude unit, which processes both sweet and sour crude, will be down for maintenance, including heat exchanger work. The plant's 85,000-bpd diesel hydrotreater unit, 65,000-bpd vacuum distillation unit and 28,000-bpd hydrocracker unit will also undergo turnaround.
Nextchem awarded engineering/technology services contract from SATORP (Saudi Arabia)
MAIRE announced that NEXTCHEM (Sustainable Technology Solutions), through its subsidiary NextChem Tech, has been awarded a three-year contract by SATORP – a JV between Saudi Aramco and TotalEnergies – to provide engineering and technology services related to the sulfur recovery complex of SATORP’s refinery in Jubail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
PBF Energy's Martinez refinery (California, U.S.) repairs to cost $30 million
Independent U.S. refiner PBF Energy said it is starting repairs at its fire-damaged 156,400-bpd Martinez refinery in California and estimates the cost of repairs to be $30 million.
Chinese CNOOC to launch $2.7-B upgraded refinery complex
State-controlled China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) is set to launch a refinery and petrochemicals complex later this year, following a $2.74-B upgrade.
Lubrication Engineers to acquire industrial brands and products of Royal Purple
Lubrication Engineers Inc. (LE), a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance industrial lubricants and asset reliability solutions, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the industrial brands and products of Royal Purple (RPI), a leading provider of specialty synthetic performance lubricants and greases for diversified industrial applications.
Improve reliability with predictive maintenance insights
Machine-learning-equipped advanced analytics platforms empower SMEs to solve some of the toughest process problems efficiently, implement effective process improvements, transition from reactive to predictive maintenance strategies, increase productivity and uptime, and operate more profitably.
IT dependencies complicate OT security
Cyber-securing oil and gas automation to ensure safe, reliable and efficient physical operations is becoming more challenging. This article explores the modern yet evolving threat environment, how expectations for cybersecurity are changing, how information technology/operational technology (IT/OT) dependencies have emerged as an important issue in most cybersecurity programs, and how owners and operators are addressing this new issue.
Strategies to resolve process variability via regulatory process control
This article discusses strategies to address process instability for effective process control.
Straight talk on fire risk assessments
For refineries, chemical plants, oil and gas pipelines and oil/gas exploration, fire and explosion hazards are omnipresent. Process hazard analysis (PHA) and fire risk assessments (FRAs) play a vital role in managing fire risk at an acceptable level. While there are various causes for fires and explosions, robust FRAs based on pragmatism and optimum allocation of resources could help minimize fire/explosion mishaps.
- Russia's idle oil refining capacity estimated up 50% in March from previous plan 3/12
- Guyana considers plan to refine oil in US, import fuel 3/12
- Bolivia issues incentives to import fuel, help private sector meet shortages 3/12
- Horisont has signed non-binding ammonia offtake term sheet for the Barents Blue project 3/12
- Metacon via Pherousa receives initial AiP from ABS and DNV for ammonia cracking 3/12
- Green Science Alliance makes bio-based biodegradable lubricant from waste cooking oil and plant-based ingredients 3/12
