The US Environmental Protection Agency raised the allowable limit of ethanol in gasoline to 15% on Apr. 2 as it approved the first registration applications to supply the additive on those terms. Officials from two major oil and gas industry associations immediately called the action premature, while fuel ethanol advocates applauded EPA’s move.

Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP will build the world’s largest on-purpose 1-hexene plant at its Cedar Bayou Chemical Complex in Baytown, Tex., using proprietary technology.

Essar Oil Ltd. has completed the $1.81 billion expansion of its Vadinar refinery in India with the successful commissioning of the 7.5 million tonne/year delayed coker unit, the final unit to be completed.

HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd. (HMEL) has commissioned its 180,000-b/d, zero-bottoms Guru Gobind Singh Refinery near Bathinda in the northern Indian state of Punjab.

PT Pertamina has let a contract to Foster Wheeler AG’s Global Engineering & Construction Group for management of an upgrade of its 348,000 b/d Cilacap refinery on Java, Indonesia.

The US Environmental Protection Agency proposed national uniform emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants at refineries and petrochemical plants’ storage vessel and transfer operations, equipment leaks, or control devices.

Another Caribbean refinery able to run heavy, sour crude oil will cease operation. Citing “unfavorable refinery economics and the outlook for continued unfavorable refinery economics,” Valero Energy Corp. said it will halt crude runs at month’s end of its 235,000 b/d facility in Aruba.

Wood Mackenzie analysts expect US exports of refined products to increase based in part on the outlook for US tight oil supplies, a WoodMac spokesman told the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers annual meeting Mar. 13 in San Diego.

Total SA has signed a memorandum of understanding with two wholly owned subsidiaries of Kuwait Petroleum Corp. to participate in a refining and petrochemical complex planned in Zhanjiang, China, in partnership with China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec; OGJ Online, Aug. 11, 2009).

State-owned Petronas has let a front-end engineering design contract to Technip for its proposed refinery and petrochemical project at Pengerang in Johor, Malaysia (OGJ Online, May 13, 2011).

Thailand’s IRPC PLC let contracts to Shaw Group Inc. to provide process design and technology license to add a 30,000-b/d deep catalytic cracking unit at IRPC’s 215,000-b/d refinery in Rayong. No contract value or timetable was divulged.

The refining and petrochemical industries benefit the US, and their representatives must rebuke misleading criticisms from politicians so that the general public hears the facts, leaders of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (formerly the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association) said Mar. 12 during an opening session of the AFPM annual meeting in San Diego.