Three refineries with a total capacity of 465,000 b/d “are in the pipeline,” Pakistan Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Naveed Qamar told the National Assembly.

Russia and Turkey, building on earlier discussions, have moved forward with plans to construct a refinery as part of their recent agreement to jointly build the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline.

Suddenly reversing an earlier decision, Venezuela’s Petroleos de Venezuela SA withdrew from a project for the construction of a 200,000 b/d refinery at Long Son in Vietnam.

Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) said it has resolved all outstanding issues with Venezuela’s Petroleos de Venezuela SA over development of the Abreu e Lima refinery planned for Suape, near Recife in northeastern Brazil.

Even as it faces fresh conflict with its northern rival, the government of Southern Sudan approved plans to build a $2 billion refinery, according to a senior official of the semi-autonomous state.

Staatsolie, the state oil company of Suriname, has let a project management consultant contract to Aker Solutions US Inc. for a doubling of crude capacity of its refinery at Tout Lui Faut to 15,000 b/d.

Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras), already under fire from legislators, said the estimated cost of the joint-venture Abreu e Lima refinery project tentatively stands at $12 billion, or nearly three times more than the original estimate of $4.05 billion.

China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) plans to start the first refinery in Chad in partnership with the country’s government by 2011.

Sonangol EP let a contract to KBR Inc., Houston, to provide license and engineering services for grassroots fluid catalytic cracking units (FCC) and hydroprocessing technologies for the 200,000 b/d Sonaref refinery in Lobito, Angola, which is slated to start in 2012.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC is to install a $500 million hydrodesulfurisation plant at its 400,000 b/d Pernis refinery in the Netherlands.

Mexico’s Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) said it has settled on a site at Tula in Hidalgo state to construct a $9-billion refinery, and will modernize another facility at Salamanca in nearby Guanajuato state for $3 billion.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) said its joint refining and chemical complex with Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) is to be constructed on Donghai Island in Zhanjing city, near Hainan.

Irving Oil and BP PLC have suspended plans to build a 300,000-b/d refinery at St. John, NB (OGJ, Mar. 24, 2008, Newsletter).

Iraq’s Kurdistan region, eyeing a broader plan of industrialization, has inaugurated a new refinery near the capital city of Arbil, one of several planned for the area that will jointly process as much as 200,000 b/d.