- Oil & Gas Journal

Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. is moving forward with a previously announced plan to expand its 15-million tonnes/year integrated Panipat refining and chemical complex in Haryana, India, north of New Delhi.

Prax Group has completed its proposed acquisition of Total SE’s UK downstream business, including subsidiary Total Lindsey Oil Refinery Ltd.’s 109,000-b/d refinery in North Killingholme, Immingham, Lincolnshire, and associated logistics assets.

Valero Energy Corp. has commissioned a new alkylation complex based on novel proprietary process technology from Lummus Technology LLC at subsidiary Valero Refining New Orleans LLC’s 340,000-b/d St. Charles refinery in Norco, La.

ConocoPhillips Australia and its joint venture partner, 3D Oil Ltd., Melbourne, contracted Shearwater Geoservices to run a 3D seismic survey over permit T/49P in the Tasmanian sector of the offshore Otway basin.

Hengyi Industries Sdn. Bhd. has let a contract to UOP LLC to deliver a suite of technologies to expand aromatics production at Hengyi's 8-million tonnes/year integrated refining and petrochemical complex on Pulau Muara Besar island in Brunei.

International oil companies (IOCs) are primed for a V-shaped recovery in free cash flow, and may generate record figures this year should oil prices average $55/bbl, according to analysis from Wood Mackenzie. Spot Brent is currently $67/bbl.

Saudi Aramco has let a contract to Wison Engineering Services Co. to provide EPC services for an upgrading project at Aramco’s existing NGL recovery plant in Shaybah oil field in the Empty Quarter of the Arabian Peninsula, southeast of Saudi Arabia.

Prices of the RIN credits—the compliance mechanism of the RFS program administered by the US Environmental Protection Agency—have been rising steadily in recent months and are close to the highest nominal level in the history of the program.

ISAB SRL has let a contract to DuPont Clean Technologies to provide technology licensing for the upgrade of an existing processing unit to enable production of ultralow-sulfur fuel at its refinery in Sicily’s eastern province of Syracuse.

Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP is evaluating the potential reconfiguration of an existing hydrocracker to enable production of renewable diesel at subsidiary Calumet Montana Refining LLC’s 30,000-b/d refinery in Great Falls, Mont.

Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. has officially commissioned the new INDMAX fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit at its 2.35 million-tpy Bongaigaon refinery at Dhaligaon, Chirang District, in India’s northeastern state of Assam, about 200 km west of Guwahati.

Oil Search has begun front-end engineering and design (FEED) stage for Phase 1 of its Pikka oil development on the North Slope of Alaska.

State-owned Ecopetrol SA is investing nearly $780 million during the next 2 years on a series of projects aimed at ensuring operational and environmental sustainability of its 250,000-b/d Barrancabermeja refinery in Santander, Colombia.

Neptune Energy has agreed to acquire interests in several oil and gas fields in the Emsland and the Grafschaft Bentheim region of Germany from Wintershall DEA.

PJSC Gazprom has completed 72% of construction activities on subsidiary OOO Gazprom Pererabotka Blagoveshchensk's 42 billion-cu m/year grassroots Amur natural gas processing plant near Svobodny in Russia’s far-east Amur region.

The downturn brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and the accelerating energy transition has created a new reality for the world’s oil and gas industry, whose production will peak lower and earlier than expected, according to Rystad Energy.

Parkland Fuel is expanding coprocessing of Canadian-sourced canola and tallow biofeedstocks with conventional crude oil in 2021 by nearly 125% from 2020 at a subsidiary's refinery on Burrard Inlet in North Burnaby, near North Vancouver, BC.

Numaligarh Refinery Ltd.has let a contract to Axens Group to deliver technology licensing for a series of new units in the gasoline-production block to be built as part of the expansion of its Numaligarh refinery in far-northeastern India.

Energy Transfer LP has agreed to acquire Enable Midstream Partners LP in an all-equity transaction valued at $7.2 billion.

Senex Energy Ltd., Brisbane, has reached nameplate capacity production of 32 terajoules/day of gas (12 petajoules/year) at its Atlas coal seam gas project in the Surat basin of southeast Queensland.

Beach Energy Ltd., Adelaide, has confirmed gas and condensate reserves in its Enterprise-1 discovery in inshore waters of the Otway basin of western Victoria.

Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals has implemented process automation improvements from Honeywell International to upgrade production capabilities as part of the expansion of its petrochemical complex in the El-Amerya—El-Nahda Territory of Alexandria.

ARC Resources Ltd. and Seven Generations Energy Ltd. have agreed to merge in an all-share transaction valued at $8.1 billion (Can.), inclusive of net debt.

Galilee Energy Ltd., Brisbane, has reached an aggregate flow rate of 50 Mcfd in the 11 wells comprising its Glenaras coal seam gas pilot project northeast of Longreach in the Galilee basin of central Queensland.

The US Energy Information Administration expects Brent crude oil prices will average $56/bbl in first-quarter 2021 and $52/bbl over the remainder of the year.