The US Environmental Protection Agency proposed 2013 biofuels quotas representing a more than 1.35 billion gal increase from what it mandated for 2012. Officials from two leading petroleum trade associations immediately called the 16.55 billion gal total representing 9.63% of total projected US motor fuel production unrealistic and unreasonable.

Marathon Petroleum Corp. has completed its purchase of BP’s 451,000-b/cd refinery at Texas City, Tex., and will rename it Galveston Bay Refinery (OGJ Online, Oct. 8, 2012).

Williams Cos., Tulsa, has awarded a preliminary engineering contract for its proposed Canadian propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant to Fluor Corp., Irving, Tex.

Plans for Vietnam’s second refinery have advanced with the issuance by Nghi Son Refinery & Petrochemical LLC (NSRP) of a letter of award for key contracts to a consortium of construction firms (OGJ Online, Mar. 28, 2008).

The American Petroleum Institute is considering taking its legal challenge of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s introduction of gasoline with a 15% ethanol blend into the marketplace to the US Supreme Court, an API official said.

Westlake Chemical Corp. has let a contract to Technip for the expansion and modernization of the cracking furnaces and recovery section of its ethylene plant in Calvert City, Ky. (OGJ Online, Oct. 2, 2012).

Hess Corp. will exit refining by closing its 70,000-b/d fluid catalytic cracking unit at Port Reading, NJ, as part of a strategy to concentrate on exploration and production.

North Sea Midstream Partners, recently formed by ArcLight Capital Partners LLC, Boston, has purchased Teesside Gas Processing Plant Ltd. from a consortium of Deutsche Bank, private US equity investor MatlinPatterson, and Carval, a division of the Cargill Group.

The US Bureau of Land Management is seeking comment on a proposed Wyoming natural gas development involving up to 4,250 wells on 265,000 acres in Fremont, Natrona, and Sweetwater counties. It also wants comments on possibly amending the 2007 Casper Resource Management Plan, which could be required for the project, it added, BLM’s Lander field office said on Jan. 17.

Oneok Partners LP plans to build a 100-MMcfd natural gas processing plant, Garden Creek III, and related infrastructure in eastern McKenzie County, ND, in the Williston basin.

Cambodian Petrochemical Co. Ltd., through a contractor, has let a licensing and engineering services contract to KBR for a hydrocracker at a 5-million tonne/year (tpy) refinery planned in Cambodia.

Nuevo Midstream LLC, Houston, has completed Phase 2 expansion of its Ramsey natural gas gathering, processing, and treating in the Delaware basin near Orla, Tex., Reeves County, about 65 miles west of Odessa.