BP PLC has commissioned a diesel hydrotreater and hydrogen plant at its 234,000-b/d Cherry Point refinery at Blaine, Washington.

Gazpromneft has let a front-end engineering and design contract to a Foster Wheeler AG subsidiary for an upgrade of its Moscow refinery.

Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of the northwest province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to build a 40,000-b/d refinery on about 400 acres in Kohat district of K-P, the state-owned company reported.

Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Co. Ltd. (Yasref) has awarded a 2-year engineering services to SNC-Lavilin Fayez Engineering for the refinery and petrochemical plant under construction at Yanbu on the Red Sea. The company is a Saudi Arabia-registered subsidiary of SNC-Lavilin, Montreal.

Repsol has started up a 40,000-b/d delayed coker at the Petronor refinery at Muskiz near Bilbao, Spain, in a project that expands crude capacity to 240,000 b/d from 220,000 b/d.

CHS Inc., St. Paul, Minn., will boost refining capacity at the 85,000 b/d National Cooperative Refinery Association facility at McPherson, Kan., to 100,000 b/d by 2016 in a $327 million project.

US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ronald L. Wyden (D-Ore.) requested information from the US Energy Information Administration about rising US gasoline prices for a hearing he plans to hold on the situation.

Lukoil has let a contract to Tecnicas Reunidas of Spain covering a vacuum gas oil deep conversion complex at its 11 million tonne/year (tpy) Volgograd refinery in Russia.

Global demand for fuel additives will increase 4.7%/year to 26.5 million tonnes in 2016, with demand in value terms advancing 8%/year to $59.4 billion.

The Russian petrochemical conglomerate SIBUR says it has increased its design capacity to produce methyl tertiary butyl ether in the Tchaikovsky area of Perm Territory to 220,000 tonnes/year from 200,000 tonnes/year.

BP Biofuels will spend $350 million to double the capacity of its Tropical sugarcane mill in Edeia, Goias State, Brazil, in a project that will enable the facility to process 5 million tons/year of sugarcane and produce 450 million l./year of ethanol equivalent.

The nation’s largest motor club urged the US Environmental Protection Agency and the fuel ethanol industry to delay introduction of gasoline with 15% ethanol into the marketplace until the public better understands its potential to damage engines and void warranties.

Partners in the North West Redwater Partnership have approved construction of the first phase of the Sturgeon bitumen refinery in the Industrial Heartland area of Alberta (OGJ Online, Jan. 28, 2010).

Saudi Aramco has let a contract to KBR for front-end engineering and design of an integrated gasification combined-cycle power plant in conjunction with a 400,000-b/d refinery under development at Jazan Economic City, Saudi Arabia (OGJ Online, Oct. 22, 2012).