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Refining

US DOE grants $134mn to Abengoa for biorefinery

Abengoa subsidiary Abengoa Bioenergy has been selected by the US Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office to receive a $133.9 million federal loan guarantee to build a commercial-scale biorefinery to produce renewable liquid fuel from plant fiber, or cellulosic biomass.

INEOS venture receives $75mn in US financing for Florida bio-refinery project

INEOS Bio announced that its joint-venture project, INEOS New Planet BioEnergy (INPB), has finalized $75 million in private financing utilizing the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) loan guarantee program for its new Indian River BioEnergy Center located in Florida.

Novamont, Genomatica form Europe JV for bio-BDO

Genomatica and Novamont have signed a letter of intent to establish a joint venture that is expected to lead to the first industrial plants in Europe producing butanediol (BDO) from renewable feedstocks.

Valero restarting Memphis refinery after recent fire

US refiner Valero is restarting units at its Memphis refinery in Tennessee, which was shut down on Aug. 5 due to a fire in a crude distillation unit. The restart will begin with one of the crude distillation units, FCC, and other key units, the company said.

Fluor wins deal from Chevron to expand oil pipeline in Kazakhstan, Russia

Fluor has been awarded a contract by Chevron Neftegaz - one of three project managers engaged by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium - for its recently-announced expansion project. Fluor will provide project services for the marine terminal and supervisory control and data system (SCADA) portions of the Caspian expansion project.

ExxonMobil to sell downstream units in Malaysia

ExxonMobil affiliates have agreed to sell their interest in three businesses operating in the Malaysian downstream petroleum sector to San Miguel Corp. (SMC). The agreement includes ExxonMobil’s 65% stake in the publicly traded company Esso Malaysia Berhad (EMB), which operates the Port Dickson refinery, as well as its wholly-owned ExxonMobil Malaysia Sdn Bhd (EMMSB) and ExxonMobil Borneo Sdn Bhd (EMBSB) affiliates, which are involved in the retail, industrial and wholesale and aviation fuels businesses.

US invests $510m on military, commercial biofuels

President Barack Obama announced that the US Departments of Agriculture, Energy and Navy will invest up to $510 million during the next three years in partnership with the private sector to produce advanced drop-in aviation and marine biofuels to power military and commercial transportation.

Invensys to build integrated refinery information system for Saudi Aramco, Total project

Invensys Operations Management, a global provider of technology systems, software solutions and consulting services to the manufacturing and infrastructure operations industries, said it signed a multi-million dollar contract to implement an integrated refinery information system (IRIS) for Saudi Aramco Total Refining & Petrochemical Co. (SATORP).

Air Products opens Calif. hydrogen fueling station using wastewater as feedstock

Air Products officially opened its newest California hydrogen fueling station, drawing its feedstock from a sustainable source. Air Products is pumping hydrogen into fuel cell vehicles that is generated from the municipal wastewater treatment plant at the Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD) in Fountain Valley.

Momentive starts up new production line at Texas oilfield technology complex

The oilfield technology group (OTG) of Momentive Specialty Chemicals started up a new manufacturing production line at its facility in Brady, Texas, to provide additional resin-coated proppants to fracturing service companies and operators in the oil and gas industry.