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TEHRAN (Reuters) - China's Sinopec (0386.HK) has signed a tentative deal to provide financing of $6.5 billion for oil refinery projects in Iran, two Iranian news agencies reported on Wednesday. If such an agreement goes ahead, it would provide Iran, the world's fifth-largest crude exporter, with much needed capital to help develop its all-important energy sector, which is under U.S. sanctions.

U.S. refiners are expected to keep output at historic lows through the beginning of 2010 as they wait for the economy to recover enough to revive demand for gasoline and other fuels. Refiners are keeping runs below 80 per cent of capacity by extending the scope and length of planned seasonal maintenance. They are even shutting plants in hopes of whittling down brimming diesel and gasoline stocks to keep profit margins in the black. Valero Energy Corp., America's biggest refiner, hammered home the extent of the industry's weakness on Friday when it said it will close its 210,000-barrel-a-day refinery in...

Oil-refinery workers on the Delaware River yesterday received their second big blow in six weeks, when Valero Energy Corp. said it would close its operation in Delaware City, Del., casting 550 out of work. When workers heard the news, "it was like a time bomb went off," said Matt Edler, who has worked for 10 years at the refinery that rises out of the lowlands near the Delaware River in southern New Castle County. "My grandfather worked there, my father, and I worked there," said Edler, who yesterday afternoon joined other shocked refinery workers at Red Lion Inn in Bear,...

Exxon Mobil Corp. and partners were expected to announce early today the completion of a $5 billion refining and chemical complex in China's Fujian province, a sprawling project that arrives as U.S. refineries and chemical plants are closing. The complex in the city of Quanzhou, which Exxon Mobil developed with Saudi Aramco, China's Sinopec and the Fujian government, will expand production of transportation fuels like diesel and widely used building block chemicals, demand for both of which is projected to grow rapidly in China in coming years. As such, it is a show of confidence by one of the world's...

BP Restarts Texas City Refinery Reformer -Filing Sun Nov 1, 2009 5:20pm EST HOUSTON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - BP Plc (BP.L) (BP.N) began restarting Ultraformer No. 4 at its 475,000 barrel per day (bpd) Texas City, Texas, refinery on Sunday, according to a notice filed on Saturday with state pollution regulators.[snip]

FIRE AT TESORO REFINERY IN L.A. NO INJURIES, EVACUATIONS UNDERWAY.

Energy: We balk at importing "dirty" oil from Canada, but others aren't so reluctant. Exempt as a "developing" nation from Kyoto-like agreements, China has decided to help Canada develop its energy-rich oil sands.The Financial Post reports that PetroChina International Investment Co. has struck a deal to buy a 60% interest in Athabasca Oil Sands Corp.'s McKay River and Dover projects for $1.9 billion. China has been establishing energy beachheads around the world in its quest to keep its growing economy fueled. With possible conflict brewing between Israel and Iran, Beijing recognizes the need for reliable suppliers like Canada in an...

Energy Policy: A new study shows that Waxman-Markey will increase prices at the pump, deepen our dependence on foreign oil and shred our ability to turn crude into gasoline. Even fuel-efficient cars will still need fuel.Oil may bubble up out of the ground, but gasoline does not. It's made in those ugly little NIMBY places called refineries we are loath to build anymore because we're too busy trying to save the Earth rather than our economy and American jobs. When Hurricane Katrina shut down 20% of our refining capacity in a single day and raised gas prices in a single...

A series of loud explosions has been reported in the area of a Sun Oil ethylene facility in New Castle County.

Iranian refineries currently need around 12 billion dollars to renovate their facilities and increase output. Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil producer, unveils an economic plan to privatize its oil refineries in line with its privatization scheme. The Oil Ministry and the Iran Privatization Organization (IPO) are in talks to reach an agreement on transferring the shares of the refineries to the private sector, said Minolta Eskandari, a director at the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company. Article 44 of the Iranian Constitution stipulates that the country’s economic system shall be based on public, cooperative and private sectors.

<p>Oil refiners will face leaner margins over the next two years as weak demand causes a buildup of excess refining capacity, analysts said Wednesday.</p> <p>"We have a bearish outlook for 2009 on the European refining sector," UBS analysts said in a report. "We have a very negative outlook for refining margins and believe that the market isn't pricing in significantly lower margins."</p>

Sinclair Oil has reduced crude throughput at its 71,500 b/d refinery in Rawlins, Wyoming, due to a fire at the refinery Sunday, the company said Monday. "The refinery is currently operating at partial capacity and Sinclair is working as quickly as possible to repair the process unit," the company said in a statement. Company officials were not available for immediate comment on the refinery's current run rates. The blaze broke out at a "heater adjacent to a hydro-desulfurization unit" at about 7:10 am MDT (1410 GMT) Sunday, Sinclair said. It was extinguished within 70 minutes and there were no injuries....

“If people had any clue how lax the security here was”, he chuckled, “they’d lose it.” At the time, the words carried very little weight. Still a novice in my job as a security officer at the Refinery, my partner’s comment sparked some curiosity but seemed at the time a harmless quip. Over the next few years those words would echo repeatedly in my mind.

Motiva Enterprises is delaying by more than a year the target date for completing a $7 billion expansion of its Port Arthur refinery due to poor market conditions, a company spokesman said today. Motiva, a joint venture between Shell Oil and Saudi Refining Inc., had planned to finish the project by late 2010, but now is aiming for the first quarter of 2012, Motiva spokesman Stan Mays said today. The expansion will double the facility’s crude oil processing capacity to 600,000 barrels per day, making the refinery the largest in the United States and among the biggest in the world....

Japan's JGC has not officially been informed about the cancellation of Kuwait's 615,000 b/d al-Zour refinery project, in which the engineering and construction company had secured key contracts, a JGC official said Monday. "We are aware of the declared cancellation of the project by prime minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammed through media reports," the official said. "However, we have not been informed about this from Kuwait as yet. We are in the middle of confirming this information through our networks," he added. JGC shares were trading at Yen 1,129 ($11.53) each at 10:22 am local time Monday (0122 GMT) on the...

Marathon Oil Corp. plans to delay for 18 months completion of a $2 billion expansion of its 100,000 b/d refinery in southwest Detroit—Michigan's sole refinery. The company originally intended to finish the expansion in fourth-quarter 2010, but a slowdown in gasoline demand and a delay in the company's Canadian crude production pushed the completion date to mid-2012. Construction, which began in June 2008, will not stop but will continue at a slower pace, a company representative said. Due to the delay and other factors, Marathon raised its cost estimate for the project to $2.2 billion, up 15% from the original...

Facing weaker demand for gasoline, U.S. refiners could be forced to close older plants and may even see the potential to export gasoline to Latin America, the chief executive of Houston’s Marathon Oil Corp. said Tuesday. But the industry must be careful to keep the U.S. market well-supplied with gasoline, in part to avoid price spikes at the pump, Clarence Cazelot said at the CERAWeek conference. Refiners must continue to invest in upgrading plants to handle a wider variety of crude oil types and boost output of diesel fuel, which is expected to see higher global demand than gasoline in...

Thousands of refinery and chemical plant workers will receive a 3 percent raise each year for the next three years along with a $2,500 contract ratification bonus, according to the terms of a tentative agreement reached Tuesday between industry negotiator Shell Oil Co. and United Steelworkers International. The contract, which still must be ratified by membership, would cover 30,000 workers nationwide, including 4,200 in the Houston area. Specific elements of the deal are secret until members have a chance to review the proposal, but local unions in Montana and California posted the basic details on their Web sites. “These were...

Progress is being made in labor contract negotiations between several energy companies and the union for about 30,000 refinery and chemical workers nationally, including 4,200 in the Houston area, a union spokeswoman said today. Negotiators for the United Steelworkers Union are meeting in Austin with representatives of Shell Oil Co., which is the lead negotiator for the industry, on the second day of the extension of an old contract that expired early Sunday morning. “We think we will be in a better position to know exactly where we’re at in the morning,” Lynne Baker, spokeswoman for the United Steelworkers Union,...

Lynne Baker, spokeswoman for United Steelworkers, said Monday morning that there's no threat of a strike for at least 24 hours. "Both sides have been talking," Baker said. "They are making some progress." Oil major Royal Dutch Shell holds the position of lead negotiator for the contracts that expired Feb. 1, covering 86 plants that represent about 64% of U.S. refining capacity. The talks cover the 24,000 workers whose contracts expired Sunday; an additional 6,000 employees would also be affected if a strike is called, Baker said. Exxon Mobil, Valero, BP and ConocoPhillips also operate facilities covered by the union....

Walkout averted, but no deal reachedOil company officials and a union representing about 24,000 refinery workers nationwide continued contract negotiations Sunday, averting a walkout at facilities that process a large percentage of the country's oil. In the New Orleans area, roughly 1,500 employees at facilities in Norco, Convent and Chalmette would participate in any strikes, United Steelworkers spokeswoman Lynne Baker said. The current contract expired Sunday at 12:01 a.m., but Royal Dutch Shell, negotiating on behalf of refiners nationwide, and the union agreed to a 24-hour rolling extension. Talks will continue until either the two sides reach an agreement or...

About 240 contract workers in Hampshire are on strike in support of protests over the use of foreign workers. More than 100 employees walked out of the Esso refinery in Fawley during the morning. Action is continuing at the Marchwood Power Station where about 140 contract workers downed tools on Friday. The original strike started at Lindsey Oil Refinery in Lincolnshire after owner Total gave a £200m contract to an Italian firm. Marchwood Power Station has been under construction for two years and is expected to be completed by the end of the summer. It employs a total of about...

Traders on Monday ignored the bullish effect of strike threats from U.S. oil workers, sending crude prices below $41 over continued concerns about the world's economy. Even new indications that OPEC members were generally complying with significant output reductions failed to buoy markets. Light, sweet crude for March delivery fell $1.27 to $40.41 a barrel by noon in Europe in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Friday, the contract rose 24 cents to settle at $41.68. Negotiations over wage increases continued over the weekend, with some 24,000 refinery workers agreeing to postpone a strike for at least...

Employees at refineries across the nation will report for work at the beginning of the week, after progress was made in contract negotiations between union leaders and Royal Dutch Shell, the lead negotiator out of more than 30 oil companies. Details of the negotiations were kept under wraps, but the deal staved off a strike at almost 90 plants nationwide, representing almost 64 percent of U.S. refining capacity

HOUSTON -- Some 24,000 refinery workers from the Gulf of Mexico to Montana are preparing to head to the picket lines. A labor agreement expires at midnight Saturday. On Thursday, union negotiators turned down the third and latest offer of a 2.5 percent wage increase for each of the next three years, in addition to changes in medical coverage. A strike would affect 60 producers, according to the United Steelworkers, which represents more than 30,000 oil workers nationwide. The nation's biggest refiner, Valero, said it will shut down some facilities if workers strike, as will European oil company BP. Shell...

With just hours to go before labor agreements expire at 11 area refineries and chemical plants, workers and company officials were making preparations Friday for a possible strike. Union members put together picket signs, and companies prepared their plants and management teams for possible work stoppages. If a new agreement is not reached by 12:01 a.m. Sunday, 30,000 energy and chemical workers nationwide, including 4,200 in the Houston area, could walk off the job. Union negotiators Thursday night rejected the latest contract offer that would have raised wages 2.5 percent each year for three years. The proposal also offered a...

HOUSTON (AP) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. on Friday reported a profit of $45.2 billion for 2008, breaking its own record for a U.S. company, even as its fourth-quarter earnings fell 33 percent from a year ago. The previous record for annual profit was $40.6 billion, which the world's largest publicly traded oil company set in 2007. The extraordinary full-year profit wasn't a surprise given crude's triple-digit price for much of 2008, peaking near an unheard of $150 a barrel in July. Since then, however, prices have fallen roughly 70 percent amid a deepening global economic crisis. In the fourth quarter...

The National Oil Bargaining (NOB) program is a modified form of pattern bargaining that is rooted in the power of the rank and file. It has been in existence for 43 years and has served the membership well. It begins with the National Oil Bargaining conference held four months prior to the expiration of the national pattern agreement. The National Oil Bargaining (NOB) program is a modified form of pattern bargaining that is rooted in the power of the rank and file. It has been in existence for 43 years and has served the membership well.It begins with the National...

Workers at 11 area refineries and chemical plants could go on strike as early as Sunday if ongoing negotiations fail to produce a new contract. Labor agreements that cover 30,000 energy and chemical workers nationwide, including 4,200 Houston-area employees, expire at 12:01 a.m. Sunday. Key remaining sticking points are wages, medical insurance, and health and safety concerns, said Alan Barnes, treasurer of the United Steelworkers union Local 13-1. So far, union negotiators have rejected two contract offers. The most recent one called for a 2.5 percent raise the first year and 2 percent raise in each of the second and...

ExxonMobil Corp.'s Beaumont refinery is making plans to keep the plant going in case of a work stoppage by union labor at midnight Saturday. Oil workers nationally are bargaining with industry on a new contract. Local unions are bargaining with individual companies on some issues as well.

With six days left before the expiration of a national basic labor agreement between 30,000 unionized U.S. refinery workers and their employers, negotiators met on Monday to hammer out a new deal. Talks between lead refiner negotiator Shell Oil Co and the United Steelworkers union could go down to the wire late on Saturday, said USW union spokeswoman Lynne Baker. Both sides have prepared for possible worker strikes or management lockouts if they fail to reach a new agreement. Neither the USW nor Shell have been willing to discuss the status of talks in detail. The last nationwide strike by...

Mexico's Petroleos Mexicanos will delay construction of a refinery until yearend while the state firm studies the best location for the plant. Pemex Chief Executive Officer Jesus Reyes Heroles said the 300,000 b/d refinery will cost $9-10 billion to build, but he noted that costs could fall due to reduced demand for services and equipment. Pemex announced the refinery plan in mid-2008, and planned to begin preparing the refinery site before yearend 2008. The company is eyeing nine possible sites for the proposed facility, including Cadereyta, Campeche, Dos Bocas, La Cangrejera, Lazaro Cardenas, Manzanillo, Salina Cruz, Tula and Tuxpan. Governors...

HOUSTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Wholesale gasoline spiked up 16 cents on refiner and broker buying in the Los Angeles market on Friday morning as three local refineries were performing planned overhauls and unplanned repairs. The jump wiped out a 17.25-cent slide throughout the week that was driven by expected increases in supply from the impending arrival of imported fuels from overseas refineries. Traders said on Friday they hadn't heard of a new refinery problem on the West Coast.

For those who lament the demise of American manufacturing, Innovation Fuels offers a glimmer of optimism. The privately held Newark company converted a 120-year-old former Standard Oil terminal on the banks of the Passaic River into a "refinery" that produces up to 950,000 barrels of biodiesel a year, with approximately 80 percent of it exported to Europe. "There's not a whole lot of companies doing that these days, and it's something we're really proud of," Chuck Weinberg, senior vice president, said of the conversion of a five-acre "brownfield" site into a manufacturing hub. Biodiesel, one of the fastest-growing alternative fuels,...

NEW DELHI -(Dow Jones)- India's Reliance Industries Ltd. (500325.BY) on Thursday said it has started operations at its new 580,000 barrels a day refinery in western India and expects to reach full capacity "shortly." The new refinery, along with Reliance's neighboring 660,000-barrel-a-day refinery, will form the world's largest refining complex in Jamnagar in western India with a capacity of 1.24 million barrels a day. "We, at Reliance, continue to be committed to the long term potential of the refining sector," Chairman Mukesh Ambani, India's wealthiest man, said in the statement. Reliance has been looking at the European market to export...

NEW DELHI, Dec 24 (Reuters) - India's Reliance Industries (RELI.BO) is set to double its capacity by starting up its new 580,000 barrels per day plant (bpd) this weekend, creating the world's biggest refinery just as global oil demand collapses. The $6 billion project will make the oil complex in Jamnagar in western Gujarat the world's single biggest supplier of fuels to the global market, pumping out 1.24 million bpd of ultra-clean fuels to Europe, Africa and the United States. The project is a triumph for Chief Executive Mukesh Ambani, who helped break India's heavy reliance on imported fuel a...

Toxic air pollution spikes from California's 21 refineries may be sharply curtailed in the wake of a U.S. Court of Appeals decision Friday in Washington. In a suit brought by the Sierra Club and other groups, the court struck down a 14-year-old federal regulation thatallowed refineries, chemical plants and other industrial plants to exceed pollution limits during start-ups, shutdowns and equipment outages. Public health advocates in Southern California's oil refinery hub hailed the decision, saying that facilities routinely operate in malfunction mode to evade pollution caps. ... The Environmental Protection Agency regulation amounted to a "gaping loophole," according to the...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, have signed agreements to expand the capacity of two refineries in Cuba and to construct a third one. Altogether, the expansion plans will see Cuba's refining capacity increased to 350,000 b/d from the current 87,000 b/d, according to a statement from Venezuela's state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA). Under the agreements, the capacity of Cuba's Cienfuegos refinery will be stepped up to 150,000 b/d from the current 65,000 b/d, while the Hermanos Diaz refinery in Santiago will rise to 50,000 b/d from 22,000 b/d. PDVSA said the proposed refinery in...

HOUSTON (AP) - Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's biggest oil refiner, will spend more than $1 billion in the next couple of years to increase its global production of cleaner-burning diesel by about 10 percent, the company said Monday. The announcement comes as many oil producers and refiners scale back spending because of the sharp decline in crude prices, dismal expectations for energy demand in 2009 and tight credit markets that have put many big capital expenditures out of reach.

Flint Hills Resources has decided not to sink more money into its North Pole refinery, but instead of continuing to look for a buyer, the company has pledged to keep the refinery open for another six months while it works with the Palin administration to find a way to position the refinery for long-term success. According to a Dec. 10 press release from Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s office, one of the options being discussed is the state taking ownership of the refinery, possibly through the Alaska Railroad Corp., or a similar state-owned structure. “After completing our review, we have determined...

The company owning a North Pole refinery is reviewing its options for the facility's operations as market conditions worsen. Flint Hills Resources has already begun shutting down a chemical plant in Port Arthur, Texas. ... In Alaska, Flint Hills' parent company had said earlier this year that it would also be making decisions about it's refinery by year's end. That timetable remains in place, said Jeff Cook, director of external affairs for Flint Hills Resources Alaska. The facility converts North Slope crude oil primarily into jet and home heating fuel. It also makes gasoline. The company says it has three...

Chevron Corp may sell refineries as it continues to focus its downstream business on Asia-Pacific markets, a company vice president said on Tuesday during a presentation to Wall Street analysts. "I won't advertise any particular rationalization going forward on the refining side," said John Watson, Chevron's executive vice president for strategy and investment in a webcast of the presentation. "There are some possibilities but I'm not going to speculate what they might be."

ConocoPhillips officials are confirming they’re looking at possibly eliminating or moving 700 jobs at the company’s Ponca City, Okla., refinery. Company spokeswoman Tracy Harlow says Houston-based ConocoPhillips is always looking for ways to be more efficient.

ConocoPhillips and the state-run Saudi Arabian Oil Co. say they’ve delayed plans to build a multibillion-dollar refinery in Saudi Arabia because of a slowing global economy. The two companies signed a $6 billion agreement in 2006 to build a 400,000 barrel-a-day oil refinery in the kingdom’s Red Sea city of Yanbu.

Hess Corp. has begun preparatory work for the construction of a multibillion dollar refinery in St. Lucia, according to a senior government official. "Quite a substantial amount of money has been committed to the feasibility studies, and the studies undertaken so far conclude that there will be no problems putting in the refinery," said Guy Joseph, communications and works minister. "From all indications things look very good because I don't think Hess would spend this kind of money in feasibility studies and all that for nothing," Joseph told Caribbean Media Corp. (CMC). He said the refinery, expected to cost more...

Arizona Clean Fuels has inched one step further toward reality with approval by the Yuma County Board of Supervisors Monday to grant a land use amendment for the proposed refinery site in eastern Yuma County. The approval paves the way for the company to now seek rezoning of the site between Avenues 48E and 50E north of Interstate 8. Arizona Clean Fuels proposes to build a refinery there to produce 150,000 gallons of fuel a day for regional distribution. The amendment to the county's comprehensive land use plan designates the site for heavy industrial use, a step that was required...

Expansion of the Big West of California refinery could get under way as soon as January after county supervisors approved the long-fought project Tuesday evening. The board’s unanimous decision came after the company agreed to a series of new conditions proposed by Supervisor Mike Maggard to ensure safe operations at the facility. snip The project’s environmental review underwent major revisions, a delay that Big West says cost it $75 million to $125 million.

A Houston company is proposing to build what it calls the world's first "green refinery" on the Texas Gulf Coast using an established technology it says could revolutionize the way transportation fuels are made. The proposal, by Hunton Energy, envisions a refinery with the capacity to convert 340,000 barrels per day of Canadian bitumen crude oil into clean-burning jet and diesel fuel. Its defining feature is the integration of a gasification facility, which would capture most of the plant's carbon emissions before they reach the atmosphere. Hunton previously announced plans to build a $2.8 billion gasification facility at Dow Chemical...

A decrease in demand for gasoline should continue into October, bringing retail gasoline prices down as much as a quarter by the end of the month, an oil analyst said Tuesday. "The way the global markets have behaved, I would suspect that whatever you pay on Oct. 1 will be at least 25 cents a gallon or so higher than what you'll pay on Oct. 31," said Tom Kloza, the Oil Price Information Service's chief oil analyst. Most area refineries are operating at reduced rates, and local gas prices should at least remain stable until normal refinery operations resume, Kloza...

ATLANTA -- The pipeline that brings gas to Atlanta from the Gulf Coast is back to 100 percent capacity, Energy Department officials said Tuesday. In addition, 13 of the 15 refineries knocked off line by Hurricanes Ike and Gustav are up and running again. The bad news for metro Atlanta drivers is that even with the Colonial Pipeline running at full steam it will be one to two weeks before supplies across metro Atlanta return to normal. Motorists are rising before dawn so they can be at filling stations when the delivery truck arrives. Some are skipping work or telecommuting....