Dubai Natural Gas Co Ltd. (Dugas) has let a contract to Tebodin, The Hague, for detailed design of a 35% expansion of its methyl tertiary butyl ether plant at Jebel Ali.

BP-Husky Refining LLC has started up a new 42,000-b/d naphtha reformer at its 160,000-b/d Toledo Refinery in Oregon, Ohio (OGJ Online, Jan. 20, 2010).

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.

Celanese Corp. and state-owned PT Pertamina (Persoro) of Indonesia have advanced an earlier agreement to build plants in the Asian country to make fuel ethanol from coal (OGJ Online, July 23, 2012).

Representatives from the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy should have been invited to testify at a hearing examining potential problems from EPA’s allowing gasoline with a 15% ethanol blend into the US market, the ranking minority member of a US House Science, Space, and Technology subcommittee suggested.

The union representing employees at Hess Corp.’s 70,000 b/d Port Reading, NJ, refinery has expanded its search for a new owner. Hess announced Jan. 28 that it plans to close the plant at the end of February and complete its withdrawal from the refining business after losing money there in two of the last 3 years.

The American Petroleum Institute and eight other trade associations asked the US Supreme Court to overturn a federal appeals court’s ruling that they lack standing to legally challenge the US Environmental Protection Agency’s introduction of gasoline with a 15% ethanol blend into the US market.

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.

Two Republicans on the US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee introduced legislation on Feb. 15 to keep the US Environmental Protection Agency from bringing gasoline with a 15% ethanol blend (E15) onto the market.

The US Chemical Safety Board said Chevron Corp. was aware of a problem with a corroded pipe before an Aug. 6, 2012, fire at Chevron’s 240,000 b/d Richmond refinery in Martinez, Calif.

Saudi Aramco Lubricating Oil Refining Co. (Luberef) has contracted with Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. to provide project management consulting for an expansion at Luberef’s lube oil refinery in Yanbu.

Engineering and plant design are in final stages for a diesel refinery in southwestern North Dakota that will process 20,000 b/d of Bakken crude oil.