Global downstream news: 11th April 2014
UK
A task force has been set up to prevent the closure of the Murco refinery in Milford Haven and protect 400 jobs. The Welsh government has appointed Lord nick Bourne, chair of Milford Haven Enterprise Zone, to the task force. He will be joined by representatives from both UK and Welsh governments, Murco and trade unions.
USA
Utah
The US Chemical Safety Board has reported that a huge 2009 explosion at the Silver Eagle Refinery in Woods Cross was caused by a rupture in a pipe that had become dangerously thin from corrosion.
Brazil
Brazil expects to become a net exporter of oil again next year and double its production in the medium term, according to the country’s oil regulator.
Speaking at the Petrostrategies oil conference in Paris, Helder Queiroz, the director of Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency, said the country had become a net importer of oil in the past two years because of declining production from its most mature fields. However. He said the country is to become a net exporter next year due to new production, from fast developing offshore fields for example.
Azerbaijan
The Azerbaijan State Oil Company has launched the catalytic reforming and gradual coking units at the Haydar Aliyev refinery following repair.
Work continues on the overhaul of catalytic cracking, which produces high octane gasoline.
China
Sino-Venezuela Guangdong Petrochemical Co., a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corp.’s (CNPC) Petrochina Co. Ltd. has let a second major contract to Metso Corp. for advanced valve technology at its 20 million tpa heavy crude oil processing plant in the Jieyang Nandahai Petrochemical Zone of China’s Guangdong province.
Metso will deliver Neles four way valves and tower bottom feeding valves for use in the project’s delayed coking process.
Uganda
Leaders from Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda have agreed on the process of implementing construction of a regional oil refinery in Western Uganda.
The successful discovery and exploration of considerable oil deposits in Uganda and Kenya has reportedly necessitated the construction of the proposed refinery that will connect to the Mombasa port.
Edited from various sources by Emma McAleavey.
Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/11042014/downstream_news_375/
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