US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ronald L. Wyden (D-Ore.) asked the Environmental Protection Agency for data to explain unprecedented volatility in the market for Renewable Identification Numbers (RIN). RINs are designed to help refiners meet alternative fuel volume requirements under the federal Renewable Fuels Standard.

The US House Energy and Commerce Committee launched a bipartisan review of the federal Renewable Fuel Standard with a white paper addressing the so-called “blend wall,” the point at which adding the required ethanol volumes to gasoline supplies would result in a blend above the currently allowable 10% ethanol limit.

The American Petroleum Institute and two Republican US senators separately asked the Environmental Protection Agency to address renewable identification number (RIN) costs, which have jumped by 1,400% since the beginning of 2012.

Existing federal regulations, many of which mandate specific fuels and restrict refining capacity additions, make continued US gasoline price volatility very likely, a Mar. 15 report from Energy Policy Research Foundation Inc. (EPRINC) suggested.

Crude oil has been removed from a barge that was under tow when it collided Mar. 12 with a liquefied petroleum gas pipeline near Bayou Perot 30 miles south of New Orleans, the US Coast Guard said.

Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. and the government of the Indian state of Rajasthan have signed a memorandum of understanding envisioning a refinery and petrochemical complex at Barmer, near oil fields producing and under development by Cairn India Ltd.

The PetroJunin joint venture between Venezuela’s PDVSA and Eni SPA has started heavy oil production from the first well in Junin-5 giant heavy oil field in the Orinoco belt.

Sibur and TNK-BP of Russia have extended gas-supply agreements and expanded the framework of cooperation within OOO Yugragazpererabotka, a gas-processing joint venture they formed in 2007.

Completion of a 300,000-b/d, full-conversion refinery by Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. at Paradip, India, is expected in November, according to a government official (OGJ Online, Nov. 16, 2011).

Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPP) said shipper commitments support development of a 270-mile pipeline header system for delivery of ethane to US Gulf Coast petrochemical plants from the company’s storage complex at Mont Belvieu, Tex.

Dubai Natural Gas Co Ltd. (Dugas) has let a contract to Tebodin, The Hague, for detailed design of a 35% expansion of its methyl tertiary butyl ether plant at Jebel Ali.

BP-Husky Refining LLC has started up a new 42,000-b/d naphtha reformer at its 160,000-b/d Toledo Refinery in Oregon, Ohio (OGJ Online, Jan. 20, 2010).