Kuwait National Petroleum Co. (KNPC) has finalized lump-sum turnkey contracts previously let to three groups of oil and gas service providers for work related to its Clean Fuels Project (CFP) at the Mina Abdullah and Mina Al Ahmadi refineries in southern Kuwait.

Higher North American crude oil production, shrinking product markets, and a pair of federal regulations have significantly affected the US refining outlook, the US Government Accountability Office said in an Apr. 14 report.

Shintech Inc., the US subsidiary of Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd., Tokyo, has applied to the Louisiana Department of Environment Quality (LDEQ) for a permit to build a grassroots ethylene plant.

Bad weather and additional repairs have led to a delay in planned maintenance that began in March at New Zealand Refining Co. Ltd.’s (NZRC) 107,000-b/d Marsden Point refinery at Northland on the North Island’s east coast.

Axiall Corp. has repaired the damage caused by a December 2013 fire at its vinyl chloride monomer manufacturing plant at the company’s chemicals complex in Lake Charles, La.

Shandong Chengtai Chemical Industry Co. Ltd. has let a contract to CB&I for the license and engineering design of a grassroots isobutane dehydrogenation unit to be built in Changyi, Shandong Province, China.

Black Diamond Oil Co. and Rezhwan Co. have agreed to form a joint venture for a refinery in the Kurdistan region of Iraq that is scheduled to begin operations as soon as next week, the companies said in an Apr. 13 release.