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Asia/Pacific

Reliance eyes expansions for west India refineries

The company's head of refinery operations, Tony Fountain, made the comments to reporters. He said Reliance's chairman has a target of doubling revenue for the company, with downstream a significant part.

China could soon become powerhouse for refined product exports – IEA

If all planned projects [in China] go ahead while demand growth slows as much as forecast, China could emerge, at least for a while, as a new powerhouse in product exports, helped by its companies' growing footprint abroad in international refining, storage, terminal and logistics, the IEA said.

Lanxess picks Foster Wheeler for engineering on Singapore polybutadiene project

The new facility, which LANXESS says is expected to be the largest of its kind in the world, will be designed to produce 140,000 tpy of Nd-PBR and will include process and finishing buildings, a central control room, a substation and a tank farm. Financial terms were not disclosed by the companies.

Rockwell Automation buys medium-voltage drives unit of China's Jiuzhou

With the purchase, Rockwell says it can now design, engineer and manufacture medium-voltage drives and power solutions for a broader base of Chinese and other customers throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Jiuzhou Electric had served as the contract manufacturer for Rockwell Automation for seven years.

PetroVietnam actively prepares for construction of nation's second refinery

Plans to build the 200,000 bpd Nghi Son refinery in Thanh Hoa province by investors from Kuwait, Japan and Vietnam have been delayed several times. PetroVietnam earlier said it could cost $8 billion-$10 billion.

Canada seeks more energy exports to India, less dependence on US

Canada's search for alternative destinations, including India, China and Japan, for its trove of hydrocarbon resources coincides with India seeking stable supplies of oil and gas to augment its own, relatively limited, energy resources, which currently satisfy less than a quarter of its requirement.

OPEC lowers global oil demand forecasts for 2012

Economic growth is mostly set to come from emerging markets, but these countries are reliant on exports to developed economies, which have performed sluggishly this year. Moreover, improvements in the global economy are dependent on the success of government and central-bank action.

Eni inks deal with Honam Petrochemical to develop Korean elastomers plant

The new site will use technologies of Eni's chemical subsidiary Versalis and will have a production capacity of about 200,000 tpy of elastomers, or elastic polymers, which will be delivered mainly to Asian markets. Start-up is planned for the end of 2015, according to the Rome-based company.

India's Bharat taps CB&I delayed coking technology for Kochi refinery expansion

The Kochi refinery's delayed coking unit will have the capacity to process 3.84 tpd of vacuum resid and small quantities of clarified oil from the FCC. The unit will be designed to produce sour fuel gas, LPG, naphtha, light and heavy gas oil, and petroleum coke. Lummus Technology will provide basic engineering.

South Korean refiners target peak operating rates amid high margins, exports

A shortage of middle distillate products like diesel and aviation fuel in the US and Europe due to both maintenance-related and unplanned refinery outages and a lack of capacity expansion is keeping global premiums high. This tightness in the West is attracting cargoes from Asia.