Mid February: News from the Americas

Brazil

After the announcement that PDVSA would not be able to keep its agreement with Petrobras for the construction of the Abreu e Lima refinery due to the inability to secure funds, new progress has been made. Petrobras has announced that it will give PDVSA until 2013 to assume a stake in the facility. Plans for this facility are already 6 years in the making.

Canada

An incident earlier this week at Suncor Energy’s Edmonton refinery resulted in damage to the fractionation unit. Work to repair the damage will take approximately two weeks to complete. The damage will affect production rates at the plant.

Labour contracts

Negotiations are still on going with SteelWorker union members at a Kentucky and North Dakota refinery. The Kentucky facility is owned by Marathon Petroleum and is in Catlettsburg and the North Dakota facility is owned by Tesoro Corp and is in Mandan.

Texas

ExxonMobil Corp announced on 15^th February that a gasoline unit at the Beaumont refinery is currently offline. The unit has shutdown for minor equipment repairs and the shutdown is only temporary. Due to the repairs there will be some minor flaring at the 344 000 bpd facility. 

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/16022012/mid-february-2012-news-from-the-americas/