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South America

Trader Vitol sells Venezuelan oil to Indian refiners

Two Indian state refiners have bought 2 MMbbl of Venezuelan crude from trading house Vitol for November delivery, as shipments to what previously was Venezuela's second largest oil market continue to grow.

Exxon director joins Elliott group seeking to acquire Citgo Petroleum

ExxonMobil board director Gregory Goff recently joined a newly formed Elliott Investment Management-backed company seeking to acquire control of Venezuela-owned oil refiner Citgo Petroleum.

Catalytic cracker, distillation units at Venezuela's Amuay refinery resume operations

A catalytic cracker and two distillation units at Venezuela's Amuay refinery, the country's largest, have resumed operations following a power interruption earlier this month.

Global refiners face profit slump as new plants come online

Oil refiners in Asia, Europe and the U.S. are facing a drop in profitability to multi-year lows, marking a downturn for an industry that had enjoyed surging returns post-pandemic and underlining the extent of the current slowdown in global demand.

Venezuela's biggest refinery suffering power outage since Sept. 12

Venezuela's Amuay refinery, the country's largest, is almost completely offline following a power outage last week.

Colombia's diesel price hike leads to trucker strike and unrest

Colombia's decision to reverse a diesel price hike that sparked a strike by truckers could adversely affect public finances, as majority state-owned energy company Ecopetrol said it would begin shutting off some operations amid the unrest.

Meet gasoline quality and process safety requirements through new alkylation technologies

Petrobras: Da Silva, M. W.

The catalytic alkylation process is very attractive to countries with high gasoline consumption and a sizable availability of LPG. This process can produce high-octane gasoline with low levels of contaminants, although there are high capital investment and operational costs associated with this technology.  

Oil spill reported off Venezuela's Caribbean coast

An oil spill, which appeared to originate from Venezuela's El Palito refinery several days ago, has contaminated a bay off the country's north-central coast in the Caribbean Sea.

Brazil's fossil push undermines Lula's green ambitions

Brazil is positioning itself as a leader in the global transition towards clean energy, with hydropower as its top source of electricity, wind and solar growing rapidly, and renewables fueling a quarter of its transport. But Brazil has also invested heavily in fossil fuels, and the government plans to turn the country from world's seventh biggest oil producer into its fourth by 2030.

Brazil's Raizen partners with Dutch biorefinery to explore lignin uses

Brazil's Raizen, the world's largest sugarcane processor, has struck a deal with Dutch biorefinery Vertoro to develop new uses for lignin, a residue from second-generation ethanol (E2G) production, including its conversion into advanced biofuels, chemicals and materials.