Qatar Shell Ltd., a unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, has started a scheduled maintenance turnaround on one of two identical production trains at its Pearl gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City.

Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), Mumbai, has let a contract to Metso Corp., Helsinki, to supply valve technology as part of the Phase 3 expansion project at its 1.24 million-b/d Jamnagar refining and petrochemical complex in Gujarat, India.

Oneok Partners LP, Tulsa, has suspended construction on 500 MMcfd of gas processing capacity at three plants in the Williston basin of North Dakota, Powder River basin in Wyoming, and Anadarko basin in Oklahoma. The actions are in response to lower commodity prices, especially for natural gas and NGLs, the company reported in its Feb. 24 earnings call.

The United Steelworkers union (USW) has launched additional work stoppages at the largest refinery in the US and three other facilities as part of USW’s unfair labor practice (ULP) strike.

US oil product demand rose 1.5% year-to-year to an average 19.2 million b/d in January, its highest level for the month since 2008, the American Petroleum Institute reported. Gasoline demand growth was strongest, reaching a 6-year January peak of 8.7 million b/d, 6.3% more than in January 2014, API said in its latest Monthly Statistical Report.

Contruction activities related to the expansion of OAO Lukoil’s 11 million-tonne/year Volgograd refinery in southern Russia are proceeding as planned, with start-up of units at the plant still on schedule for 2015-16.

Tesoro Corp. plans to move forward with two complementary projects to enhance production of cleaner products at its 120,000-b/d Anacortes, Wash., refinery, about 70 miles north of Seattle.