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Americas

KBR wins FEED work to raise US refinery's capacity to handle heavy crudes

During the feasibility phase, KBR’s expertise will focus on determining the optimum economic configuration to increase overall heavy crude processing capability and flexibility. The refinery currently processes light sweet crudes and aims to take advantage of fluctuations in the crude oil pricing market.

Global LNG spending to double in next five years

The increase in capital expenditures includes onshore and offshore projects to liquefy gas for export, import terminals to regasify LNG and LNG carriers for transporting the fuel. By region, Australasia and North America are expected to bring most of the new supply to market.

EPA likely to lower US renewable fuels mandate

HP Editorial Staff: HP News Services

The EPA plans to reduce the volume of renewable fuel that refiners must blend into the US gasoline supply, a move that could shrink markets for ethanol and other products.

Enterprise chooses Foster Wheeler for engineering on Texas PDH project

Foster Wheeler was awarded an engineering, procurement and construction contract by Enterprise Products for a propane dehydrogenation unit (PDH) and associated power, utilities and infrastructure at Mont Belvieu, Texas. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

US Gulf, Western Canada vie for big gas projects

Producers largely have divided up into two camps: One is betting on Canada's industry-friendly federal government and its closer proximity to Asia. The other group is hoping already-developed infrastructure in the US will outweigh political uncertainty in Washington over large-scale exports of the cheap fuel.

New TransCanada pipeline to carry crudes from Alberta to East Canada

TransCanada plans to seek regulatory approval for the project from Canada's National Energy Board by the end of the year, and, if it succeeds, to start construction in 2016. Service to refineries in Montreal and Quebec City would begin the following year and then to Saint John in 2018.

Environmentalists warn of hazards in extracting gas from methane hydrate

The trillions of cubic feet of methane hydrates contained in the ocean's floor are in geologically unstable areas. The fear: One wrong move and an undersea landslide could send massive amounts of a particularly potent greenhouse gas to the ocean's surface and into the atmosphere.

Optimize your compressor maintenance program

Consultant: Geitner, F. K.

One deviation alone might not be enough to bring on a compressor failure, but, when several more deviations combine, the failure risk is known to increase exponentially.

Case history: Failure analysis of a syngas compressor

SABIC Technology Centre: van Zyl, G.  |  Al-Zahrani, E.  |  Al-Meshari, A.  |  Al-Haroon, M.

A first-stage impeller in a synthetic gas compressor failed after 20 years of service. The compressor is a six-stage centrifugal compressor driven by a steam turbine. This case history discusses the i..

Improve pressure drop calculations for saturated water lines

When saturated water flows through pipes and components, it flashes—thus increasing its specific volume and limiting the fluid flowrate. Due to these conditions, the calculation and design for pi..