CALGARY, Alberta, April 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Local authorities declared the fire at the Husky Energy Superior Refinery out around 6:45 p.m. (CT) on April 26, 2018.

Additional fire prevention measures are being taken, and the situation will continue to be closely monitored. All workers at the refinery have been accounted for. Several people were injured during the incident and taken to hospital. “The emergency situation at the refinery is now over, and our focus in the days ahead will turn to the investigation and understanding the root cause of the incident,” said CEO Rob Peabody. “Our thoughts are with those who were injured, and their families.” “Our deepest thanks to the emergency responders and members of the community who stepped forward with assistance. We also appreciate the support of businesses, and city and county authorities.” Residents needing accommodation, food or transportation, or help dealing with other issues or concerns can call Husky’s Superior assistance line at 1-800-686-3192.

By Husky Energy

February 8, 2018:

The Management of Dangote Oil Refinery Company (DORC) has embarked on training indigenous engineers to manage and operate the 650,000 barrels per refinery and petrochemical plan due for commissioning in 2019.The company has so far trained about 150 engineers in different section of refinery operation and more trainer are going to be sent abroad for training before June this year. The company’s Director of Human Capital Management and Project Support, Mohan Kumar, who made this disclosure in Lagos at the media briefing on Monday, while presenting the 22 engineers who returned from Mumbai India for to the management of the company. He said the young engineers were trained at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. in India on how to manage the operations of the refinery. He added that the engineers had gathered fundamental practical knowledge about refinery. 

According to him, the engineers are recruited and trained to witness the building of the refinery from scratch. He said the engineers spent two months in classroom training and three months on the job training. Kumar explained that the 22 engineers were trained by experts who had over 45 years experience in refinery operations, stressing that the training became imperative due to the commitment of Dangote Group to promote local content by developing indigenous capacity. He added that “the engineers are expected to also transfer the skills acquired to other Nigerians when the refinery takes off.  LASG tasks workers to explore tech tools in driving citizens’ expectations 2 days ago Toyin Saraki canvasses support for universal health coverage at world economic forum 2 days ago Firm tasks SMEs on retirement savings, voluntary contributions 2 days ago    Dangote to set up 10,000ht tomato farm, plant in Katsina The Management of Dangote Oil Refinery Company (DORC) has embarked on training indigenous engineers to manage and operate the 650,000 barrels per refinery and petrochemical plan due for commissioning in 2019.

The company has so far trained about 150 engineers in different section of refinery operation and more trainer are going to be sent abroad for training before June this year.  The company’s Director of Human Capital Management and Project Support, Mohan Kumar, who made this disclosure in Lagos at the media briefing on Monday, while presenting the 22 engineers who returned from Mumbai India for to the management of the company.He said the young engineers were trained at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. in India on how to manage the operations of the refinery.   He added that the engineers had gathered fundamental practical knowledge about refinery.  According to him, the engineers are recruited and trained to witness the building of the refinery from scratch. He said the engineers spent two months in classroom training and three months on the job training.Kumar explained that the 22 engineers were trained by experts who had over 45 years experience in refinery operations, stressing that the training became imperative due to the commitment of Dangote Group to promote local content by developing indigenous capacity.

He added that “the engineers are expected to also transfer the skills acquired to other Nigerians when the refinery takes off.   “The 22 engineers arrived from Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Mumbai in India, where the last set of 150 employees trained in various areas of petroleum and petrochemical refining.’’ Kumar noted that another set of 600 engineers would be sent for training before the end of April.  The Technical consultant to Aliko Dangote on refinery and petrochemical projects, Babajide Soyode, said there were plans to recruit about 900 engineers in preparation for take off of the Dangote refineries project. Soyode said the training exercise began in 2015 when first batch of 50 engineers were sent to India for the training after which another batch of 30 engineers were sent for similar training while another batch of 30 engineers would be going in March, with another 30 scheduled to attend in April.  These are aside additional 50 being planned for such training by Dangote Petrochemical (Fertilizer) plant. Meanwhile the Dangote Group says it plans to commence growing and processing of tomatoes in Katsina, with the establishment of a 10,000-hectare tomato farm in the state. Speaking yesterday, an Executive Director with the conglomerate, Mansir Ahmed, said a tomato processing plant covering 2,000 hectares would also be established. Ahmed, who spoke while presenting Governor Aminu Bello Masari with maps and layouts of the proposed tomato farm and processing plant, said these will be established within the second quarter of the year. He said the farm and plant would be established close to the Zobe Dam in Dutsinma council area, adding that the project’s commencement would depend on the federal and state governments’ approval for the dam and land use, respectively. He said the tomato farm would be divided into three sections of about 3,500 hectares each, with the crop to be rotated on each plot to check pests and related infection on the tomatoes. 

Aminu also said other crops like soya beans would be planted on the land, while the company was also considering investing in commercial ranching and production of dairy products. He said the company had gone round parts of the state in the last one year, and decided to invest in the agriculture sector, even as he called on government to lease the Songhai farm to the company to use as a training facility.  In his response however, Governor Masari decried the challenge that could be faced when relocating farmers’ owning farmlands on the intended project site. He also said the forest area close to proposed site had been encroached upon over the years, and that consideration must be given to cattle routes when setting up the farm and plant.The state government and representatives of the company however went into a closed door meeting afterward, with a view to addressing the issues raised by the governor. 

By The Guardian

February 8, 2018:

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) said on Wednesday it was investing $3.1 billion to upgrade its Ruwais oil refinery to free up more crude for export from its flagship Murban grade.  The refinery modification, known as the Crude Flexibility Project (CFP), is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2022, ADNOC said in a statement.  The project will enable ADNOC’s Ruwais Refinery-West complex to process up to 420,000 barrels per day of the Upper Zakum crude, or similar grades, freeing up more exports from ADNOC’s Murban crude, which is sold at a premium, the company said.  “Enabling the Ruwais Refinery-West to process Upper Zakum, or similar, medium sour crude, in place of Murban light sweet crude, will allow us to extract greater value from our crude resources,” Abdulaziz Abdulla Alhajri, director of ADNOC’s downstream department said.  “It will mean we can maximise the benefit of price differentials to enhance refinery margins, improve the middle distillate products and release valuable Murban crude into the market.”  The planned modification will add an Atmospheric Residue De-Sulphurisation (ARDS) unit to enable the refinery to process other types of crudes.  ADNOC awarded an engineering and construction contract to a joint venture between South Korea’s Samsung Engineering and CB&I from the Netherlands, it said. 

By Reuters

February 8, 2018:

Meridian Energy Group, Inc., the leading developer of innovative and environmentally-compliant oil refining facilities, is pleased to announce that its Founder, and Member of the Board of Directors, Tom Williams, has decided to step down from his day-to-day management role in the Company to devote his efforts to promoting the Davis Refinery story and Company progress to the Shareholder Relations team and to the Davis Family Partners. Mr. Williams has been heading up Permitting and Regulatory Affairs for Meridian since its founding in 2013, which includes the land use and air quality permitting activities in support of the Davis Refinery, which will be built just west of Belfield, in Billings County, North Dakota. Davis received its conditional use permit and rezoning approvals for siting the facility near Belfield from Billings County in July, 2016. On January 26, 2018, the public comment period for the draft air quality Permit to Construct from the North Dakota Department of Health ended, and award of the final Permit to Construct is expected within a few months. Meridian was founded by Davis Family Partners, a partnership headed up by Mr. Williams which was formed to purchase and manage North Dakota agricultural and mineral assets that are derived from the Family’s original roots in North Dakota. The members of Partners are all descendants of people who left North Dakota to find employment during the early 1900s, a recurring theme in North Dakota. When Mr. Williams and other members of the Partners group saw the oil-related activity in the Bakken, they decided to form Meridian as a venture that would create long-term employment opportunity for a new generation of North Dakotans. Said Mr. Williams, “Now that the Permit to Construct has emerged from the public comment period, the focus will shift on responding to those comments that are relevant to the Permit to Construct and then to finalizing that document. The period during which I can make the greatest contribution to Meridian and the Davis Project is nearing a successful completion, and I would like to focus more of my time on promoting the Davis Refinery throughout North Dakota and within our shareholder community. I will continue to represent the Davis Family Partners on the Meridian Board, and I will continue to do whatever I can to ensure the success of the Davis Refinery. The Davis Family Partners continues to fully support Mr. William Prentice and his Meridian Executive team in the execution of this and future projects.”

William Prentice, Chairman and CEO of Meridian, added that, “Tom and I have worked closely since he first brought me in to head up the Meridian team. It was Mr. Williams who set the objectives of focusing on employment opportunity for local North Dakota residents and in making the Davis Refinery the cleanest refinery on the planet. When completed, Davis will create nearly 2,400 direct, indirect and induced jobs, and by setting a new bar for environmental compliance with the refinery industry, Davis will change the industry forever. I believe that this is an incredible legacy for Mr. Williams and the Davis Family Partners.”

About Meridian Energy Group, Inc.

The Mission of Meridian Energy Group, Inc. is to provide long-term shareholder value through the development and operation of the cleanest, most efficient and environmentally-compliant crude oil refineries in the world, benefiting the communities and their investors. Established in 2013, Meridian is led by industry experts with a combined 500 years of world-class expertise in energy & hydrocarbon processing, project development, finance, and large capital project management. Meridian Energy Group, Inc.’s current headquarters is in Belfield, ND.

By MARKETINSIDER

February 8, 2018:

Venezuela’s state oil firm PDVSA has resumed crude imports for its 335,000-barrel-per-day Isla refinery in the Caribbean island of Curacao after a seven-month pause, as it seeks to turn around falling fuel output, according to internal PDVSA documents.  PDVSA, which supplies the bulk of Venezuela’s export revenue, is increasingly in need of foreign crude as chronic underinvestment slashes its own output, leaving it short of crude to refine and blend.    The increased activity at Curacao comes as more suppliers are accepting oil swaps as a solution to the company’s lack of dollars, according to the documents. Cash-strapped PDVSA is increasingly giving its own crude and products away to obtain some of the barrels its refining network needs.   

Refining problems due to outages and lack of oil have caused intermittent fuel shortages in the OPEC-member nation. The shrinking crude output and exports have not only cut its ability to pay cash for imported oil, but also to buy the food, medicine and supplies the country needs.    PDVSA’s oil purchases - typically used for refining and blending its heavy crude for export markets - declined to almost none during the second half of last year as the company used most of its cash to pay bondholders and avoid a default.  PDVSA has received in recent weeks 1.73 million barrels of U.S. West Texas Intermediate and DSW crudes, and 1.44 million barrels of Russia’s Urals crude at Curacao’s Bullenbay terminal, according to the PDVSA’s internal data and Reuters vessel tracking data, almost the same volume imported in all of 2017.   

Most imports came from tenders awarded in December to China Oil and trading firm Citizens Resources LLC.    PDVSA expects to receive two more U.S. crude cargoes from China Oil, owned by state-run China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and Sinochem Corp, and two additional Urals cargoes from trading firm Glencore (GLEN.L) and Russia’s Lukoil (LKOH.MM), the documents say.    PDVSA, Citizens Resources, China Oil and Lukoil did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Glencore declined to comment.    PDVSA agreed to prices over $66 per barrel for the crude purchases discharged this year, according to the same documents. The numbers were close to market prices, but still are a heavy load for a country struggling to afford basic goods. Cash payments for the cargoes have been minimal since PDVSA also has agreed to deliver up to 1 million barrels of fuel oil and 3.9 million barrels of Merey heavy crude in exchange for the imports.    Such barter deals have become common in recent years as PDVSA strains to obtain hard currency for its crude. A series of oil-for-loan agreements coupled with falling crude output have left the company cash strapped. In 2017, its oil production fell to the lowest level in almost three decades.    Financial sanctions imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump in August have also worsened its cash problems while limiting access to long- and medium-term credit.    PDVSA’s Isla refinery in Curacao is one of its main facilities for fuel oil output for exports, but a lack of crude last year limited processing at the plant, causing delays in shipments to Asia, PDVSA’s main destination for exports.    Venezuela’s domestic refineries are also working well below capacity. The country’s largest facility, Amuay, entirely halted processing in January. Some units restarted days after, but its catalytic cracker stopped working again this week due to lack of feedstock, according to union sources.  

By Reuters