Gunvor Group Ltd., Nicosia, Cyprus, signed a purchase agreement to acquire the assets of Petroplus’s Ingolstadt refinery and related German marketing activities.

The American Petroleum Institute strongly criticized the US Environmental Protection Agency 3 days after it rejected petitions from API, two other oil and gas industry associations, and a refiner to waive requirements for cellulosic biofuels that the petitions said do not exist.

BP North America Inc. (BPNA) agreed to pay an $8 million fine and spend more than $400 million to install state-of-the-art air pollution controls at its Whiting, Ind., refinery to settle charges that it violated the Clean Air Act, the US Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency jointly announced.

Lukoil will use Axens technology for a cracked-gasoline desulfurization unit at its 337,000 b/d Kstovo refinery in the Nizhny Novgorod region of Russia.

Imperial Oil Ltd. said it will offer its 88,000 b/d Dartmouth refinery near Halifax, NS, for sale while it studies alternatives for the facility that is not meeting its financial expectations.

Engine durability tests by the Coordinating Research Council, which studies the interaction of engines and petroleum products, found leaks from uneven valve seat wear and pittage in two of eight 2001-09 vehicle engines run for 500 hr on a 15% ethanol-85% gasoline fuel blend, the organization supported by the American Petroleum Institute and automobile manufacturers said.

The Technology Center Mongstad, built to test technologies for capturing carbon dioxide from post-combustion gases, has been inaugurated near Bergan, Norway (OGJ Online, Nov. 10, 2011).

Reliance Industries Ltd., Mumbai, has let a contract to Fluor Corp. covering project management services for a new petcoke gasification plant and expansion of petrochemical facilities at its complex at Jamnagar, Gujarat, India, where it has 1.24 million b/d of refining capacity.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC is withdrawing from plans to build a cellulosic ethanol plant in Canada through Iogen Energy, which it jointly owns with Iogen Corp. of Ottawa.

A Delta Air Lines Inc. subsidiary has agreed to buy the 185,000-b/d Trainer, Pa., refinery near Philadelphia from Phillips 66 Co. for $180 million, the companies reported Apr. 30.