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Middle East

HP News

Qatar Petroleum and Shell cancel $6.5-B petrochemical project in Qatar Royal Dutch Shell and Qatar Petroleum (QP) have canceled the $6.5-B Al-Karaana petrochemical project in Qatar, which will signifi..

HP Industry Metrics

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Rhodes, Mike

Mid-January saw the continued decline of monthly average Brent crude oil prices, which fell $17/bbl from November to a monthly average of $62/bbl. The continual price decrease reflects US tight oil pr..

HP People

ABB’s board of directors unanimously nominated Peter Voser to succeed Hubertus von Grünberg as chairman.

Multi-faceted approach on energy efficiency methods

The hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI) is a high-energy-consuming business. After cost for feedstocks, energy is the next largest operating expense for an HPI facility. Since the first oil embargo ..

Shell to build $11B petrochemicals complex in Iraq

Industry Minister Nasser al-Esawi said the Shell complex is expected to start up operations within five to six years and would make Iraq the largest petrochemical producer in the Middle East.

Maximize LPG recovery from fuel gas using a dividing wall column

GTC Technology US, LLC: Gentry, J. C.  |  Bhargava, M.  |  Nelson, C.  |  Siddamshetti, V.

Refiners are challenged to recover LPG from mixed fuel gas streams due to the difficulty of separating the lighter components from bulk gas. To maintain profitability, it is essential to direct all of the crude oil components to the optimum disposition. This practice is becoming more significant due to increasing LPG demand in some countries and the supply of lighter crudes in countries such as the US.

Shale gas drives new opportunities for US downstream

Technip Stone & Webster Process Technology: Maller, A.  |  Dharia, D.  |  Gbordzoe, E.
Axens: Lambert, N.

This shift to lighter feeds for the SC will reduce the future availability of other petrochemical feedstocks—in particular, propylene.

Optimize amine sweetening with an optical O2 analyzer

Barben Analytical: Hammond, S.

After extraction, raw natural gas must go through processing before it is suitable for industrial, commercial and residential usage. The first stage of gas processing is known as “sweetening,&#14..

DCS migration: Lessons learned

TOTAL Port Arthur refinery: Conley, R.

In 2005, TOTAL’s Port Arthur refinery (PAR), like many present-day refining and petrochemical facilities, found itself with an obsolete, at-capacity distributed control system (DCS). As shown in ..

Avoid counterproductive project management practices

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

For many years, reliability-focused engineers have observed flawed procurement processes for mechanical equipment. Many requirements are supposedly aimed at the lowest possible lifecycle cost; however..