US workers to return to Shell
HOUSTON: Striking workers are scheduled to return to their jobs next week at Royal Dutch Shell’s joint-venture refinery in Deer Park, Texas, said an official of the United Steelworkers union (USW), ending a near two-month walkout.
Workers will begin returning to work, said Lee Medley, president of the USW local 13-1. The 800 workers walked off their jobs when the largest refinery strike in 35 years began on February 1.
Petrobras’ well on Libra hits oil
RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras said the consortium responsible for the giant offshore Libra field had found good quality oil after drilling its second well. The C1 well confirmed a column of hydrocarbons of approximately 200 meters in the central block of Libra which is located in the Santos Basin, about 220 kilometers off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.
US shale output to flatten, then dip
LONDON: US shale oil production will flatten and slightly decline in the second quarter of 2015 as companies cut their capital spending to cope with lower oil prices, energy consultancy Pira said.
Crude oil prices have roughly halved since June last year due to a supply glut and weak demand. There has been a drop off in the number of drilling rigs in the US in recent weeks but stocks have continued to rise to record levels.
Phillips 66 warns of planned flaring
NEW YORK: Phillips 66 warned of planned flaring at its 139,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Los Angeles-area refinery in Wilmington, California, according to a filing with state pollution regulators. The filing with the South Coast Air Quality Management District listed event start date as March 25, and event end date as March 27. The refinery has two linked facilities about five miles apart in Carson and Wilmington.
NuStar Energy building storage
SAN ANTONIO: Pipeline company NuStar Energy is building storage at its South Texas operations to enable exports of oil producers’ lightly processed condensate out of the port of Corpus Christi, a company executive said. "We’re building the storage so we can keep the condensate segregated" from other Texas crude oil that cannot be exported under US law, Danny Oliver, NuStar’s senior vice president of marketing and business development, said in an interview during the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers annual meeting in San Antonio.
EPA calls for comments on biofuel
NEW YORK: A US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) request for comments from cellulosic biofuels makers raised speculation among industry analysts of further delays in the release of government-mandated renewable fuels volumes. The agency, which oversees the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) programme, has asked for public comments before submitting a request to Office of Management and Budget regarding volume projections on cellulosic fuel production, according to a notice.
PDVSA’s oil exports fell in 2014
CARACAS: Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA’s exports to Asia and the Americas fell last year though shipments to Europe increased, according to a preliminary government report issued this month. The Opec country’s Oil Ministry did not explain the overall drop in exports in its report to Parliament, though ebbing oil output at mature fields and refinery problems towards the end of the year are likely to have crimped shipments.
Nigerian exports to reach 1.8 mbpd
LONDON: Crude oil exports from Nigeria were set to reach roughly 1.81 million barrels per day (mbpd) in May, according to traders and provisional shipping lists, slightly above the initial April export plan that included around 1.795 mbpd.
More cargoes could be added to the programme, particularly as traders said production issues with the field feeding exports of Yoho grade had delayed the issuance of any export cargoes.
Planned flaring at Exxon refinery
NEW YORK: ExxonMobil warned of planned flaring at its 149,500-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in Torrance, California, according to a filing with state pollution regulators. The filing with the South Coast Air Quality Management District listed event start date as March 25 and event end date as March 27, 11:59 p.m.
A refinery uses its safety flare when hydrocarbons cannot be processed normally due to a malfunction or planned work.
US ethanol consumption to fall
SAO PAULO: US ethanol consumption is expected to fall to 45.6 billion litres a year by 2024 from the current 50.3 billion litres due to problems related to the so-called blend wall, the US Department of Agriculture’s director of global policy division, Michael Dwyer, said.
BP lifts force majeure
LONDON: BP has lifted the force majeure on oil loadings from Angola’s Saturno stream, a spokesman said. May loadings from the Saturno, which typically exports about 150,000 barrels per day (bpd), were not immediately available, but will likely push Angola’s exports for the full month above the 1.67 million bpd (mbpd) initially planned for April. Field operator BP issued the force majeure declaration after a power loss at the FPSO PSVM offshore facility.
