Asia/Pacific
Russian ESPO Blend oil jumps to premium on higher demand from Chinese refiners
Russia's Far East ESPO Blend oil grade has firmed to premium against the Brent benchmark on delivery basis for the first time since November 2023 on higher demand from Chinese refiners cooling India's buying.
Russia's Novatek launches new condensate unit at Ust-Luga complex
Russian energy company Novatek has launched the new processing unit at its gas condensate complex at the Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga in the last third of the August.
China's new Yulong refinery runs crude unit at 60%–70%
China's latest greenfield refinery, Shandong Yulong Petrochemical, is running one of its two crude units at 60%–70%, as local government announced its official startup on Wednesday.
YECC awards ECI Group licensing contract for 150,000-tpy copolymer plant
ECI Group has signed a licensing agreement with Shaanxi Yanchang China Coal Yulin Energy & Chemical Co., Ltd. (YECC) to deliver a 150,000-tpy copolymer plant project, using ECI Group’s proprietary hybrid reactor technology.
Rio Tinto pilots Pongamia seed oil as a feedstock for renewable diesel
Rio Tinto will develop Pongamia seed farms in Australia as part of a new biofuels pilot. The project will explore the potential of Pongamia seed oil as a feedstock for renewable diesel.
Russia's Gazprom Neftekhim petrochemical plant announces major maintenance
Russia's Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat oil processing, petrochemical and fertilizer complex located in the Bashkortostan region has announced major maintenance.
LanzaTech signs MLA with SEKISUI to develop multiple commercial-scale waste-to-ethanol plants across Japan
LanzaTech Global has signed a Master License Agreement with SEKISUI CHEMICAL CO. to deploy, at commercial scale, a jointly developed platform that converts syngas derived from municipal solid waste and industrial solid waste into ethanol.
Chinese court declares another Sinochem refinery bankrupt
A Chinese court has declared bankrupt a third refinery owned by state oil and chemical group Sinochem, a court document showed. The Changyi city court also ended reorganization procedures at the refinery, Shandong Changyi Petrochemical.
China's newest refiner Yulong starts up crude unit
China's Shandong Yulong Petrochemical on Friday began starting up one of two new 200,000-bpd crude units in eastern China, marking the refinery's official launch after four years of construction.
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.

- Vioneo awards Lummus polypropylene contract for world's first industrial scale fossil-free plastics from green methanol facility 8/19
- Research: Developing an energy-saving, carbon-capturing method for making ethylene glycol 8/19
- Emerson announced the release of its new Rosemount 3144S temperature transmitter 8/19
- Chinese refiners sweep up Russian oil after Indian demand falls 8/19
- Indonesia plans quick-to-build oil refineries for U.S. crude 8/19
- Russia's ultra low-sulfur diesel exports from Primorsk scheduled to rise in August 8/19