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In January, Hovensa entered into a consent decree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Justice Department in which the company agreed to invest $700 million on pollution controls after a series of chemical releases affected people living downwind from the refinery. Hovensa also agreed to pay a $5.4 million penalty for violating the Clean Air Act. It is unclear how the agreement will be affected by the closure.

In October 2011, the refinery yield of distillate fuels (a category that includes diesel fuel and heating oil) reached 29.7%, matching the previous record set in December 2008. For all major products, only the distillate yield is higher now than it was in October 2001. Since 2001, distillate yields have followed an upward trend, peaking in December 2008 before falling back to an average of 27.5% in 2010. During 2011, the distillate yield grew, reaching 29.7% in October (latest EIA data available). The recent uptick in distillate yield can partly be explained by the significantly higher price margins over the...

Northeastern states are slated to lose half of their regional capacity for fuel production by midyear as financial woes push refineries there to idle, a trend likely to increase the region’s dependency on Gulf Coast supply. A Houston-to-New York pipeline is making major expansions to accommodate growing demand to transport gasoline and other fuels up north from the Gulf Coast to fill the potential supply void. The Gulf already supplies about half of the Northeast’s demand for petroleum products, said Mindi Farber-Deanda, head of the liquid fuels market team for the U.S. Energy Information Administration. But the shutdown of production...

The Swiss firm will suspend operations at its Petit Couronne refinery in northern France, Cressier in the Swiss canton of Neuchatel and its Antwerp site in Belgium. The action followed Tuesday's announcement that banks had frozen about $US1 billion ($A989.32 million) in uncommitted credit lines deemed "critical" to maintain its operations. "The company will start temporary economic shutdowns of the Petit Couronne, Antwerp and Cressier refineries in January 2012 given limited credit availability and the economic climate in Europe," Petroplus said in a statement on Friday. The firm, Europe's largest independent oil refiner, said it held meetings with lenders in...

Larger shipments of gasoline and diesel from the Gulf Coast are needed to offset planned closures of three major refineries in the Northeast, according to a new federal report. Northeastern states could experience “spot shortages with price hikes” for gasoline and other fuels as the region faces the idling of three critical refineries in Pennsylvania, the U.S. Energy Information Administration concluded in a recent report. “The Gulf Coast is likely to be a significant alternate supplier,” the report notes, specifying the Colonial Pipeline as a main transport route. “Even so, pipeline capacity will still be insufficient to make up the...

Houston-based Pelican Refining Co. has been fined $12 million for felony violations of the Clean Air Act at its Louisiana refinery. A federal judge in Lafayette, La., imposed the fine - the largest ever in Louisiana for violations of the act - after the company pleaded guilty in October. The violations were ...

This one will probably come as a surprise to many of you. Despite the best (read: worst) efforts of the Obama administration and the counter-intuitive nature of what you’re paying for gas and heating bills this winter, the United States is on track to be a net exporter of petroleum products for the first time in more than half a century. The U.S. exported more oil-based fuels than it imported in the first nine months of this year, making it likely that 2011 will be the first time since 1949 that the nation is a net exporter of such goods,...

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) is looking to sell its Alliance refinery in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, according to Bloomberg, which cited two unnamed sources. The plant may be sold for $700 million-$1 billion excluding inventory, Sam Margolin, a refining analyst for Global Hunter Securities LLC, said. ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) has potential upside of 9.9% based on a current price of $70.81 and an average consensus analyst price target of $77.8. ConocoPhillips is currently below its 200-day moving average (MA) of $72.03 and should find support at its 50-day MA of $68.05. In the last five trading sessions, the 50-day MA has remained constant while...

West Deptford's Eagle Point Refinery headed to India? Not so, say officials of reportBy Joe Green/Gloucester County Times Gloucester County Times Published: Tuesday, November 22, 2011, 4:00 AM WEST DEPTFORD TWP. — For many residents here, the story unfolded like an insulting hyperbole for the loss of American industry to other shores. Word was, the Sunoco Eagle Point Plant — at least part of it — was to be dismantled, loaded onto ships, and taken piece-by-piece to India’s east coast, to be rebuilt over there. But officials with Sunoco and a federal lending institution purported to be involved in a...

ConocoPhillips is seeking a buyer for a Pennsylvania refinery and its associated pipelines and terminals, the company said this morning. The company plans to idle the Trainer, Pa. refinery until a buyer is found and will permanently close the refinery if the company fails to find a prospective buyer. “After exploring a wide range of alternatives for the refinery, the decision to sell is based on the level of investment required to remain competitive,” said Willie Chiang, senior vice president of Refining, Marketing, Transportation and Commercial. “U.S. East Coast refining has been under severe market pressure for several years.” Chiang...

Atmospheric crude oil distillation capacity at U.S. refineries was 17.7 million barrels per day at the beginning of 2011 according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's Refinery Capacity Report. Capacity, which was 0.15 million barrels per day above its level at the start of 2010, reached the highest level recorded since 1982. Since 2001, total net U.S. refinery capacity grew by more than 1 million barrels per day. Nearly half (49%) of U.S. refinery distillation capacity is located in the Gulf Coast region, which is Petroleum Administration for Defense District (PADD) 3, up from 46% in 2001. Most expansions of...

Small changes in the use of open flames, or flares, to burn off pressurized gases at oil refineries and chemical plants could help improve Houston’s air quality, a new study suggests. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s study, which was released Tuesday, indicates that fire-belching flares could destroy harmful gases with a higher rate of efficiency if operated in a different way. Stacks are designed to be relatively smokeless through the use of steam — so the sight of leaping flames and billowing smoke from plants has unnerved Houstonians for decades. But the study suggests that a visible flame is...

It will be the largest floating object in the world - the length of four football pitches and weighing as much as six aircraft carriers. Shell today announced plans to build a giant floating gas refinery, named the Prelude, in a project that will cost $10billion. The ship will allow gas extracted by drilling rigs and platforms far out at sea to be transferred to the ship for processing- removing the need for pipe lines to a refinery on land. It means the company will be able to drill for gas in new fields hundreds of miles from the nearest...

(CNSNews.com) - Senate Democrats are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate possible price-fixing of gasoline by U.S. refineries because “recent reports,” according to the senators, suggest the refiners are trimming supply to keep prices high. But a federal report from November shows that refinery stockpiles started to decline in 2008, if not earlier. At a press conference on Tuesday, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced that they had sent a letter that day to the FTC, “to request the Commission begin an investigation into potential price fixing of gasoline by U.S. refiners.” “Recent...

The opening of the Morganza Floodway on Saturday and the ratcheting up of the Bonnet Carre Spillway flow to Lake Pontchartrain to 319,000 cubic feet per second on Sunday is keeping water levels in New Orleans right at the Mississippi's official 17-foot flood stage, a level not expected to vary much during the next two weeks, according to the National Weather Service. And a lower crest of the Mississippi River on Sunday at Arkansas City, Ark., about 100 miles above Morganza, might help the Army Corps of Engineers in its plan to reduce the amount of water needed to be...

Some Texas City refineries and chemical plants continued to limit operations Thursday while the electric utility serving the area worked to resolve drought-related problems on transmission lines. Although Texas City’s power grid didn’t suffer a repeat Thursday of intermittent power outages that plagued it the three previous days, the massive BP refinery may not have all the outside power it needs until sometime today. Intermittent power outages Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday caused BP and another refinery operator, Valero, to emit tens of thousands of pounds of sulfur dioxide and other air toxics, according to initial, mandatory reports the companies filed...

Refinery and power company officials are trying to piece together why several Texas City plants lost power, causing shelter-in-place warnings, Tuesday school closings and emissions from plant flares that lit the skies over the coastal town. The brief power outages, which occurred in two clusters starting around 9:30 p.m. Monday and 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, prompted BP, Valero and Marathon Oil to shut down their refining operations. Dow Chemical also shut down equipment at its Texas City chemical plant, which makes components used in consumer and industrial products. Flare towers designed to burn off emissions glowed late Monday and in the...

The power outages that hit several Texas City oil refineries and chemical plants overnight and Tuesday morning appear to be related to equipment on site at those facilities and are not related to power generation or transmission issues. Cathy Garber, a spokeswoman for Texas New Mexico Power — the company that owns the power lines in the Texas City area — said there appear to have been four events starting at 9:30 p.m. Monday in which 138-kilovolt lines went offline. Garber said she’s not permitted to discuss specific customers. She said the sections that failed were on the customer-owned distribution...

A House subcommittee urged the EPA on Thursday to resolve its differences with Texas over the unique way the state regulates industrial air pollution. The bipartisan push came at the end of a hearing in Houston convened by a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee to review the impact of the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent actions in Texas. The EPA and Texas are at odds over several issues, but much of the talk focused on the federal agency’s rejection of the state’s use of so-called flexible permits for refineries, chemical and plastics makers and other facilities. Rep. Gene Green, a Democrat...

Excess oil refining capacity remains in North America, Western Europe and Japan in spite of a recent spate of refinery closures, Bill Klesse, chief executive of Valero Energy Corp , said on Sunday. … Valero expects most of the refineries shut in Japan will quickly return to production and no demand will be placed on U.S. West Coast markets. Supply for Japanese refined products will first come from other Asian refineries and possibly the U.S. Gulf Coast because prices would be more advantageous than the West Coast. Valero has seen "general industry interest" in supplying Japan from the Gulf, Klesse...

A strike at Abadan’s oil refinery is no inconsequential event. This is the largest gasoline producing plant in Iran which also happens to be the oldest oil refinery plant in the Middle East. The strike of its workers in 1978 was consequential for the 1979 revolution that toppled the monarchy in the country. Now, in the third decade of the same revolution, we are witness to a strike by the refinery’s workers of the third phase of the refinery upgrade. The strike began on Monday, February 25th, the day Iran’s Green Movement leaders had called out the public into the...

LIVE video at link http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=7946342 MONT BELVIEU (KTRK) -- An explosion has rocked a refining facility in Mont Belvieu today, sending flames high into the air The Mont Belvieu Police Department confirms an explosion about 11:45am at Enterprise Products on Sun Oil Road. According to its website, "Enterprise owns a state of the art gasoline additive production facility that has been modified to produce isooctane, a motor gasoline octane enhancement additive used in reformulated motor gasoline blends to increase octane, and isobutylene."

A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked the EPA’s plan to seize control of greenhouse gas permits from Texas. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must wait until at least Friday so the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia can make a decision on Texas’ bid to prevent the federal takeover.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A ruling by the Obama administration allowing the sale of gasoline containing 15 percent ethanol is running into legal hurdles from trade groups opposing the plan. The National Petrochemical and Refiners Association sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday over the decision to allow the sale of gasoline containing higher blends of corn-based ethanol, the second major group to protest the ruling. The Obama administration said in October that gas stations could start selling the ethanol blend for vehicles built since the 2007 model year, increasing it from the current blend of 10 percent ethanol.

The world’s biggest gas-guzzling nation has limits after all. After seven decades of mostly uninterrupted growth, U.S. gasoline demand is at the start of a long-term decline. By 2030, Americans will burn at least 20 percent less gasoline than today, experts say, even as millions of more cars clog the roads. The country’s thirst for gasoline is shrinking as cars and trucks become more fuel-efficient, the government mandates the use of more ethanol and people drive less. “A combination of demographic change and policy change means the heady days of gasoline growing in the U.S. are over,” says Daniel Yergin

Based on a presentation to the Platts Bunker & Residual Fuel Oil Conference, New Orleans, June 23-24, 2010.Slurry oil is a heavy aromatic by-product of a refinery's fluid catalytic cracking unit that forms a small part of global fuel oil supply. Generally, it is mixed into heavy fuel oil as a viscosity cutter. Slurry oil's low API gravity, however, limits how much can be blended.The US has never been a heavy user of fuel oil and, in fact, produces more slurry oil than it can absorb. US Gulf Coast refiners and traders, in particular, must find outlets for excess slurry...

An explosion Tuesday morning shook a refinery in Mexico, near the U.S. border, local media reported. The Cadereyta refinery, located in the state of Nuevo Leon, is owned by Mexican state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex. A Pemex press officer would only say that the company was gathering information and would issue a statement once it had more facts.

Cosmo Oil to supply Anchorage air cargo hub with up to 300,000 bbl monthly . . . . A Japanese oil refiner is seeking permission to bring jet fuel by tanker into the Port of Anchorage, a move that could help cure what has been a costly problem for the air cargo industry. Cosmo Oil of USA Inc., a Torrance, Calif., affiliate of Tokyo-based Cosmo Oil Co. Ltd., on July 10 applied to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation for an oil discharge prevention and contingency plan, or C-plan. Oil and fuel shippers are required to have a highly detailed...

Whereas Obama is trying to crush Arizona by suing it into the ground to prevent it from defending itself from illegal immigration, and it is preventing any clean up efforts in Louisiana after 71 days, it has just been learned from one of our conatcts in Texas that Obama by way of the EPA has just shut down today 33% of the country’s refining capacity. While Obama was unsuccessful at putting a moratorium on oil drilling, he was able to accomplish the same thing by putting a stranglehold on oil refining which accomplishes the same thing. With 1/3rd of the...

Iraq will host a gathering of international oil executives in Baghdad on Saturday to discuss contracts for the four planned refineries that would add about 750,000 barrels per day of capacity, Oil Ministry spokesman Assim Jihad said on Wednesday. "There are many international companies that expressed their interest to participate and to reach an agreement with the Oil Ministry," he said. The conference is the first step before inviting companies to tender for the refineries, he added. Iraq wants to build a refinery in Nassiriya, southern Iraq, with a capacity of 300,000 bpd, and a second one in the northern...

Foster Wheeler AG (Nasdaq: FWLT) announced today that its Global Engineering and Construction Group has been awarded a feasibility study and front-end engineering design (FEED) contract by the Iraqi Ministry of Oil for a new grassroots refinery at Nassiriya in southern Iraq. The proposed refinery will have a capacity of 300,000 barrels per day. The Foster Wheeler contract value for this project was not disclosed and will be included in the company's second-quarter 2010 bookings. In executing this contract, Foster Wheeler will develop the configuration of the new refinery to meet the client's processing objectives, evaluate proprietary technologies, prepare a...

Oil, gas from Chevron refinery in Burnaby has been flowing for weeks METRO VANCOUVER -- Chevron Corporation has been trying for weeks to locate the source of a "historic" leak from its Burnaby oil and gas refinery -- a leak that has been seeping still-unknown amounts of oil, gas and diesel fuel into the Burrard Inlet since at least April 21. Ray Lord, a spokesman for the multinational oil and gas company, said he has no idea how long the seepage from the nearly 70-year-old plant has been happening, but that Chevron first alerted the authorities about the leak on...

The Environmental Protection Agency moved Tuesday to end a long-running dispute with Texas over how the state regulates emissions, including cancer-causing toxins such as benzene and butadiene, from dozens of refineries that produce a third of the nation's gasoline and billions of dollars of petrochemicals. In a step it called unprecedented, the agency barred Texas from issuing an operating permit to a refinery in Corpus Christi — a power it has traditionally delegated to state regulators. The EPA said it would do the same in dozens of other cases in which it believes the state's permits violate the Clean Air...

Objecting to how Texas regulates air pollution, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday it is taking over the issuance of an operating permit for a Corpus Christi refinery and could step in at some 39 other major facilities across the state. “I think the writing will be on the wall — unless we start seeing better permits that address our objections, we are very likely to begin federalizing others,” EPA Regional Administrator Al Armendariz said in a telephone interview. “The state is not following federal Clean Air Act requirements.” Tuesday's unprecedented action affected a Flint Hills Resources refinery in...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry says an EPA decision to bar the state from issuing an operating permit to a southeast Texas refinery is part of an Obama administration effort to take power away from states. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday barred Texas from issuing an operating permit to the independently owned Flint Hills Corpus Christi East Refinery, saying the state's permit violates the Clean Air Act. Instead, the EPA plans to issue the refinery a more stringent permit that it says complies with the law. Perry's office said in a statement the Clean Air Act gives permitting authority...

The Obama administration, already charged with providing political cover for BP in the Gulf of Mexico mega-oil disaster, is also charged with allowing BP to renege on agreements between the firm, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the state of Indiana to prevent pollution of Lake Michigan from the firm's Whiting, Indiana refinery near Hammond. In 2007, the EPA, under the Bush administration, said it was powerless to stop BP from dumping more toxic waste into Lake Michigan from its expanded refinery that was processing increased amounts of heavy crude oil from Canada. However, the EPA did urge BP...

SAN ANTONIO -- An 18-wheeler being loaded with fuel at a San Antonio refinery has exploded. Television stations showed footage Wednesday of an enormous black plume spewing from the AGE Refining Inc. unit on the city's southeast side. Refinery marketing director Jeff Morrow says the truck exploded late Wednesday morning at the facility that refines gas and jet fuel, but he had no other details. San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood told KENS-TV that the fire had spread to the refining facility, and authorities were trying to assess whether neighbors should be evacuated.

An oil refinery just southeast of downtown San Antonio is on fire. The fire started at the AGE Refinery on South Presa, following an explosion. Large black plumes of smoke can be seen spilling into the skies above San Antonio. The plant is located near Mission San Juan on Military Dr. and Presa. AGE Refining, Inc., is based out of San Antonio. They refine several specialized petroleum products, including jet fuel and diesel. The company was founded in 1991. There is at least one burn victim, according to initial reports. Our sister station, KENS 5, has a crew on the...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A fire erupted at a downtown Memphis oil refinery, burning one person and sending a thick plume of smoke over the city. Wayne Cook, a spokesman for the Memphis Fire Department, said a 29-year-old male was taken in critical condition Thursday to the Regional Medical Center with burns over 45 percent of his body. Cook said the fire was fueled by a gasoline or diesel fuel originating from a pipeline at the refinery. The fire was reported under control by Thursday afternoon. Cook said two other people were treated at the scene and released. News helicopter footage...

The environmental analysis of Chevron's plan to retrofit its Richmond refinery, including the core question on whether pollution would increase, is inadequate under state law. The state Court of Appeal issued a highly anticipated 35-page ruling Monday afternoon that essentially keeps the refinery project at a standstill until holes in the environmental report are fixed. Chevron is disappointed in the ruling, said refinery representative Brent Tippen. "We feel both the evidence and the law amply supports the adequacy of the environmental impact report," Tippen said. "We are now reviewing the court's decision and will determine what is next to be...

Matt Gumbel, 34, of Oak Harbor passed away at 2:45 a.m. Saturday from complications related to burns on two-thirds of his body. Gumbel was severely injured in an April 2 fire at the Anacortes Tersoro Refinery...

SEATTLE -- A fifth victim has died following a fiery blast at the Tesoro Refinery. On Friday night, Tesoro officials announced Donna Van Druemel, 36, succumbed to her injuries at Harborview Medical Center at approximately 7 p.m. Druemel was one of four workers who were airlifted to the hospital with burns covering most of their bodies. Another victim, 29-year-old Kathryn Powell, died at the hospital Friday morning. Doctors said she had sustained severe burns, and her husband reportedly appeared to be in a state of shock. Two others are being treated at the hospital. Matt Gumble, 34, and Lew Janz,...

ANACORTES, Wash. - An explosion and fire at a Washington state oil refinery shook homes and shot flames into the night sky early Friday, killing five people and critically injuring two others. The fire struck the Tesoro Corp. refinery in Anacortes, about 70 miles north of Seattle on Puget Sound, at about 12:30 a.m., the company said. The blaze occurred while maintenance work was being performed and was extinguished in about 90 minutes. Four workers -- two women and two men -- were airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, about 70 miles south of the refinery, with severe burns....

ANACORTES, Wash. - Three people have died in an early morning explosion at the Tesoro oil refinery in Anacortes. Four workers have been injured and taken to the hospital. Greg Wright, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Tesoro, tells KING 5 News that three workers were killed in the refinery explosion. At one point, a number of workers were missing but Wright says all workers are now accounted for. The blaze started in a naptha unit of the complex.

With more capacity cuts looming and financial metrics still under strain, the North American refining industry remains a credit risk, reports Fitch Ratings. Although Fitch analysts see “glimmers of improvement,” global product markets remain oversupplied because of a weak recovery in demand and capacity expansions completed or expected worldwide. “From a credit perspective, the question of who makes capacity cuts to balance the market remains a key issue,” write analysts Mark C. Sadeghian, Sean T. Sexton, and Adam M. Miller, in the Fitch Ratings Chicago office. Capacity expansions include 180,000 b/d by Marathon Oil Corp. at Garyville, Ind., 580,000 b/d...

... Historically, Canadian high-sulfur, or "heavy," crude, shipped by long-distance pipeline, has struggled to compete against cheaper, seaborne shipments of oil from Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. But Mexico's heavy-crude output is declining and Venezuelan exports of the stuff to the U.S. have dropped amid a rocky political relationship between the two nations. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has also cut exports of high-sulfur crude, which is less profitable than lighter varieties, as part of broader cuts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. ... Mexico's heavy crude oil is in decline due to waning production from its giant Cantarell offshore field...

Iran is seeking $200 billion in oil, gas and refining investments over five years to avoid a production decline, and Iranian companies can sustain this should foreign interest fail to materialize, the country's oil minister said Wednesday. He also reiterated sanctions won't affect those plans. Speaking to reporters ahead of a meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Masoud Mirkazemi said: "For the next five years, we are now...planning seriously for investment of upstream and downstream [of] $200 billion investment." Given the depletion of existing oil and gas fields, the minister said the investments will "introduce a degree, a...

Royal Dutch Shell PLC forecast its production will climb 11% during 2009-12, saying it plans to cut costs by divesting 15% of its refining capacity and 35% of its retail markets. The supermajor expects production will reach 3.5 million boe/d in 2012 compared with 3.15 million boe/d in 2009. Outlining the company’s strategy from London on Mar. 16, Shell executives did not specify which downstream assets might be sold or when. “Shell should be in a surplus cash flow position in 2012,” said Peter Voser, Shell chief executive officer. The company’s 2009 earnings were sharply reduced by the recession, which...

Global oil processing will rise by 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 72.6 million in the second quarter compared with January-March due partly to higher run rates in China and Asia, the International Energy Agency said on Friday. That is a jump of 920,000 bpd over the same period last year. "Chinese refiners have run at record high throughputs in part due to guaranteed margins and have recorded net product exports for two months running," the Paris-based agency said, adding that it expects Chinese refiners to keep operating rates high due to government subsidies. A large portion of demand growth...

Some of the nation's biggest oil companies are looking at permanently reducing how much gasoline and diesel fuel they make, a move that analysts say would almost certainly trigger higher prices for drivers. Energy companies are suffering huge losses from refining because of slumping gasoline use -- a product of the economic downturn and changing consumer habits and preferences. Energy experts say refining cutbacks have begun and will accelerate as corporations strive for profits.