Europe
Cameroon police arrest ousted refinery manager for burglary of prior office
Metouck had been general manager at Sonara for the last decade but last Friday was replaced by Ibrahim Talba Malla at the end of the corporation's board meeting. The former GM was arrested on Monday after having been discovered to have discretely entered the new GM's office.
Tanker drivers to strike for three days at Scottish refinery in Grangemouth
The strike, which will affect delivery of aviation and motor fuel from the 210,000 bpd refinery, is being taken in order to defend pension rights ahead of a transfer of their employment contracts from BP to DHL. BP said in a statement that its priority remains the safe delivery of fuel products.
BASF awards engineering work to Fluor on German toluene diisocyanate plant
The single-train, 300,000 tpy plant will produce TDI and expand additional plants as precursors for polyurethanes at the BASF site in Ludwigshafen. Production is set to begin in the fourth quarter of 2014.
EU emissions program threatened by falling prices
Europe's flagship effort to limit greenhouse-gas emissions faces an existential threat as the price of emissions has fallen dramatically, eroding an incentive for industries to pollute less and forcing policy makers to weigh environmental priorities against economic concerns.
Russia's SIBUR establishes polypropylene trading groups in Turkey, Ukraine
The new trading arms will enhance SIBUR’s flexibility in adjusting to clients’ needs, give the company extra competitive edge in strategic markets, and increase sales through access to end consumers, according to the company. Turkey is one of the global leaders for polypropylene consumption.
KBR licenses technology to Bolivia ammonia plant
The fertilizer ammonia complex will be designed using KBR’s Purifier technology. KBR will additionally supply proprietary operator training simulators and a steam dynamic simulation study to ensure a safe, fast, efficient startup of the ammonia plant and continued support to the operations.
BP report warned of terrorism risk in Algeria, Africa
The reports, which were seen by The Wall Street Journal, anticipate the emergence of groups like the one that launched a deadly attack against the plant in In Amenas, Algeria, which BP operates in a joint venture with Algerian state-oil company Sonatrach and Norway's Statoil.
Foster Wheeler signs technology pact with Shell for global downstream work
Under this agreement, Shell may request Foster Wheeler to provide support in basic engineering packages for the following technologies: distillation, hydrocracking, hydrotreating, thermal conversion, ethylene oxide, pyrolysis gas, fluid catalytic cracking and CANSOLV sulfur dioxide scrubbing.
Lukoil picks Tecnicas Reunidas for upgrade project at Volgograd refinery
Lukoil and Tecnicas Reunidas will construct a vacuum gasoil light hydrocracker unit with an annual capacity of 3.5 million metric tons and up to 75% conversion ratio, a combined sulphur production unit and hydrogen production facilities at the refinery that is about 1,000 kilometers south of Moscow.
IEA lowers forecast for global oil demand growth, warns of China slowdown
In its closely-watched monthly report on the oil market, the watchdog agency cut its oil demand growth forecasts for the coming year by a marginal 90,000 bpd, but warned that recent signs of recovery in the global oil demand could be the result of one-off factors, rather than sustained improvement.
- Evonik inaugurates its 100,000-tpy alkoxides plant in Singapore 8/27
- Borouge collaborates with Yokogawa on autonomous AI control room 8/27
- BASF and Yara end joint project for low-carbon ammonia at U.S. Gulf Coast 8/26
- U.S. jet fuel consumption growth slows after air travel recovers from pandemic slowdown 8/26
- ExxonMobil announces Group III base stocks production 8/26
- Saudi Arabia and India were biggest buyers of Russian fuel oil, VGO in July 8/26
