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.

Kuwait National Petroleum Co. has let a $528 million project management consultancy contract to AMEC, London, for the 615,000 b/d refinery planned at Al Zour (OGJ Online, July 1, 2011).

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).

Rafinerija Nafte Brod, operator of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s only refinery, will use technologies from Honeywell’s UOP LLC and ExxonMobil Research & Engineering Co. (EMRE) in an upgrade of its 240,000 b/d facility at Brod.

Saudi Aramco has completed contractor selection for the engineering, procurement, and construction of the Jazan refinery and terminal in the southwest of the country.

TNK-BP said it will invest $537 million to add isomerization and cat-cracked gasoline hydrotreating capacity at its 340,000 b/d Ryazan refinery about 120 miles southeast of Moscow.

The US Department of the Interior approved a land-into-trust application from three North Dakota Indian tribes, accepting 469 acres into trust for a proposed 13,000 b/d refinery on 190 acres and feed production on the remainder.

China National Petroleum Corp. has started up a 600,000-tonne/year ethylene unit that doubles capacity of Daqing Petrochemical with the country’s first ethylene plant based on domestically developed technology.

Kazakhstan’s state oil company KazMunaiGaz expects the country’s crude oil production to reach 90 million tonnes/year by 2015 and 130 million tpy by 2020.

Technip has received contracts for front-end engineering design of modernization projects that will expand crude capacities of two small refineries in Kazakhstan.

Italy’s Eni SPA will turn its 80,000-b/d Venice refinery at Porto Marghera, Italy, into a “biorefinery” based on proprietary technology for the production of biodiesel.

Numaligarh Refinery Ltd. (NRL), which operates a 3 million tonne/year (tpy) refinery in the Golaghat district of Assam in far-northeastern India, plans to increase crude-distillation capacity to 8-9 million tpy.

Lukoil has adjusted plans for modernization of two of its Russian refineries to boost output of gasoline.