US Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s ranking minority member, has asked the US Federal Trade Commission to investigate a gasoline price surge in the Golden State.

Marathon Petroleum Corp. has signed a definitive agreement to buy BP PLC’s 451,000-b/cd Texas City, Tex., refinery and related assets for as much as $2.5 billion.

A fire at TNK-BP’s 130,000-b/d Saratov refinery in southwestern Russia burned four workers on Oct. 4, killing one. Injuries to the other three were not considered life-threatening.

Kazakhstan’s state oil company KazMunaiGaz expects the country’s crude oil production to reach 90 million tonnes/year by 2015 and 130 million tpy by 2020.

Westlake Chemical Corp., Houston, will convert the feed to its Calvert City, Ky., ethylene plant to ethane from propane and increase ethylene production capacity to 630 million lb/year (about 286,000 tonnes/year) from 450 million lb/year.

Saudi Polymers Co. has begun commercial production at its petrochemical complex in Jubail, Saudi Arabia.

Connacher Oil & Gas Ltd., Calgary, said it has closed the sale of its 100% interest in Montana Refining Co. to a subsidiary of Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP, Indianapolis (OGJ Online, Aug. 15, 2012).

A Sept. 28 boiler explosion at a Wynnewood, Okla., refinery owned by CVR Energy Inc. of Sugar Land, Tex., killed one worker and critically injured another, a spokeswoman with the US Department of Labor said Oct. 1, adding the incident is under investigation.

The US Environmental Protection agency should move quickly to resolve problems with Renewable Identification Numbers (RIN) used as biodiesel credits by yearend, an American Petroleum Institute official urged.

Technip has received contracts for front-end engineering design of modernization projects that will expand crude capacities of two small refineries in Kazakhstan.

Westlake Chemical Corp., Houston, will perform planned maintenance and an expansion of the Petro 2 ethylene unit at the company’s complex in Lake Charles, La., in first-quarter 2013.

Stavrolen, a subsidiary of Lukoil, has resumed full production of ethylene and propylene at its complex in the Stavropol region of Russia after completing repairs to the ethylene unit, which was damaged by fire in mid-December 2011.