The American Petroleum Institute is considering taking its legal challenge of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s introduction of gasoline with a 15% ethanol blend into the marketplace to the US Supreme Court, an API official said.

Westlake Chemical Corp. has let a contract to Technip for the expansion and modernization of the cracking furnaces and recovery section of its ethylene plant in Calvert City, Ky. (OGJ Online, Oct. 2, 2012).

Hess Corp. will exit refining by closing its 70,000-b/d fluid catalytic cracking unit at Port Reading, NJ, as part of a strategy to concentrate on exploration and production.

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.

A federal appeals court for the District of Columbia rejected a petition to rehear a legal challenge to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s allowing introduction of gasoline with a higher ethanol blend into the marketplace.

A strong US energy future heavily depends on being able to refine reliable motor fuels, suggested Cindy Schild, refining senior manager at the American Petroleum Institute. Sound decisions on the proposed Keystone XL crude oil pipeline, the Renewable Fuels Standard, and refinery regulations could make a major positive difference, she maintained.

Global demand for fuel additives will increase 4.7%/year to 26.5 million tonnes in 2016, with demand in value terms advancing 8%/year to $59.4 billion.

Phillips 66 signed a 5-year contract with Global Partners LP under which Global will use its rail loading, logistics, and transportation network to deliver crude oil from the Bakken formation of North Dakota to the Phillips 66 Bayway refinery in New Jersey.

Tesoro Corp. will halt refining at its 93,700-b/cd Kapolei refinery in Hawaii after a year-long effort to sell the facility proved unsuccessful (OGJ Online, Jan. 11, 2012).

The Russian petrochemical conglomerate SIBUR says it has increased its design capacity to produce methyl tertiary butyl ether in the Tchaikovsky area of Perm Territory to 220,000 tonnes/year from 200,000 tonnes/year.

Costs for designing and building refining and petrochemical plants were essentially unchanged from this year’s first quarter to its third quarter, according to the latest edition of the IHS Downstream Capital Costs Index.