A Barrel Full

I don’t look at petrochemicals very much, but this week’s combination was too interesting to miss.
Shell has completed its largest petrochemicals project.
Shell today announced the successful completion of the Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex (SEPC) project in Singapore. SEPC is Shell’s largest petrochemicals investment to date and the second world-scale petrochemicals project the company has completed […]

The deal has been talked about for a while, and it has finally been done.
Valero Energy Corporation announced today it has reached an agreement to sell the assets of its terminal operation and discontinued operations in Delaware City to the Delaware City Refining Company LLC and Delaware Pipeline Company LLC, wholly owned subsidiaries of PBF […]

As if the shale gas boom were not enough, Alaska has a surplus that it would like to shift to consumers. All that is needed is a few tens of billions of dollars for a gas pipeline, and all that lovely gas will come flowing down into the lower 48.
So who wants to spend such […]

The major news in the refining space is an accident at Tesoro Anacortes Refinery
At approximately 12:30 a.m. Pacific time today, a fire occurred at the Tesoro Anacortes refinery. The incident was on a small section of the refinery following minor, routine maintenance. The fire was contained at around 2 a.m., has been extinguished and the […]

Bearing in mind the date, I was not sure whether to believe the headlines.
Barack Obama eases offshore oil drilling ban.
After all this is a man who has said a lot about climate change and the enviornment in general. However, when I read some of the commentary, I was convinced. Nobody is happy.
President Barack Obama’s plan […]

This story really has to rank as one of the best examples of a complete lack of self awareness I have seen in the sector.
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., Asia’s biggest refiner, announced its first acquisition of a foreign oil field stake and said it faced “challenges” in the oil-processing business as competitors expand capacity.
Lets […]

The Gulf of Mexico is considered a mature area when it comes to oil production. It has been in decline, and was almost being written off. Pemex, Mexico’s State owned oil company, has long relied on a massive but shrivelling property, Cantarell Oil Field. Yet in the space of a few weeks, we have seen […]

Shell has updated the markets with its yearly strategy webcast. Whilst there is nothing surprising in their statements, its useful to see what the big boys are thinking.
The company is assessing over 35 new projects from some 8 billion barrels of oil equivalent resources (boe), which should underpin Upstream growth to 2020.
In order to realise […]

It seems the only news worth talking about these days is gaseous, and top of the heap is always the unconventional gas. So news of a couple of potentially important deals in coal seam gas is about par for the course.
First we have Shell’s interest in the Australian company Arrow.
Shell Energy Holdings Australia Ltd. (Shell), […]

We don’t know yet whether it will turn out to be Russia’s worse nightmare, or just a useful diversification of Poland’s energy needs. Polish Shale Gas is certainly not short of interested parties these days though.
Canada’s Talisman is the latest.
San Leon Energy PLC is pleased to announce that its decision to enter into the Baltic […]