Asia/Pacific
China's Sinopec weighs takeover of Gulf Keystone
(Reuters) -- China's Sinopec Corp is weighing a takeover of Gulf Keystone Petroleum, an oil company operating in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
S.Korea's Lotte Chemical to invest $215 MM to add ethylene capacity
SEOUL (Reuters) -- South Korea's Lotte Chemical Corp said on Monday it will invest $215.82 million to increase the ethylene production capacity at its southwestern Yeosu plant by 2018.
RINA services awarded Chevron, ExxonMobil Indonesian gas contracts
PT RINA Indonesia, in consortium with PT Depriwangga, has been awarded two contracts to provide quality assurance services for offshore and onshore projects in Indonesia.
Fluenta to supply monitoring system for Petronas refinery
Fluenta announced the sale of 24 ultrasonic flare gas monitoring systems to Malaysian state-run oil and gas company Petronas.
China teapots to extend oil buying spree into 2017
BEIJING (Reuters) -- China's small, independent refiners are set to raise their crude oil imports again in 2017 on expectations that Beijing will keep their intake quotas steady, market participants said, a move that should help eat up some of the global supply glut.
Japan refiners Idemitsu, Showa Shell working on merger, despite setbacks
TOKYO (Reuters) -- Japanese oil refiners Idemitsu Kosan and Showa Shell Sekiyu said they have not decided on a capital and business tie-up as reported by some media organizations, and that they are still working towards an eventual merger.
KBR awarded license contract for largest ROSE unit design
HOUSTON – KBR, Inc. announced it has been awarded a license and basic engineering design (LBED) contract by Hyundai Oilbank (HDO) for an 80,000 bpd ROSE unit in Daesan, South Korea. The unit will be built using KBR's proprietary ROSE technology, which provides solvent deasphalting (SDA), and will be the largest SDA unit in the industry.
Indonesia: Cut gas prices for petrochemical, fertilizer industries in 2017
JAKARTA (Reuters) -- Indonesia on Tuesday told energy companies to cut natural gas prices for fertilizer, steel and petrochemical industries starting Jan. 1, 2017, in a renewed effort to bring down domestic gas prices.
Industry Perspectives: New downstream project announcements drop 35% in 2016
According to <i>Hydrocarbon Processing’s</i> Construction Boxscore Database, nearly 470 new projects have been announced in the downstream hydrocarbon processing industry over the past two years. New project announcements have fallen from 285 in 2015 to 185 in 2016. This trend analysis represents a year-over-year decrease of approximately 35%.
Editorial Comment: Hydrocarbon Processing forecasts $321 B in total HPI spending in 2017
What is the state of the global hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI)? Which regions and sectors are seeing growth, and which are stagnant, or possibly shrinking? These were some of the questions that <i>Hydrocarbon Processing</i> editors tackled at the 43rd Annual <i>Hydrocarbon Processing</i> Forecast Breakfast.

- Trafigura to use Babcock's ammonia fuel supply system onboard gas carriers 7/7
- Lotte Chemical Titan secures $3-B ethylene supply deal in Indonesia 7/7
- Diesel East-West price spread nears 1.5-yr high amid supply concerns West, stable East 7/7
- U.S. Gulf Coast fuel oil imports at record low as refiners opt for heavier crude 7/7
- Shell flags profit hit from weakness in gas trading and chemicals business 7/7
- Transition Industries signs agreements for the Pacifico Mexinol Project, an ultra-low carbon chemical production facility 7/3