Honeywell officials announced June 24 that they’ve won a US$27 million contract from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to develop “fuel burn reduction” technology and test all-hydrocarbon aviation biofuels for use in Honeywell gas turbine engines.

Cummins officials announced June 24 that they’ve signed a memo of understanding with Russia’s Kamaz to negotiate licensing for Euro-6 diesel emissions control technology.

International Energy Agency officials predict in their Medium-term Oil and Gas Markets 2010 report (released June 23) that global crude refining capacity will rise 9 million barrels per day between 2009 to 2015.

Total and Saudi Aramco officials announced June 25 that they’ve completed a US$8.5 billion project financing for the 400,000-barrel-per-day Jubail refinery.

Citgo officials announced June 25 that they have completed refinancing of the company’s US$2.1 billion debt by extending maturity.

Sasol officials announced June 24 that recent expansions of shale-gas production in the United States and planned expansions elsewhere are lowering global natural-gas prices relative to oil, hence opening the door to further expansion of Fischer-Tropsch gas-to-liquids fuels production.

Korea-based GS Caltex officials last week announced they’ve completed a 60,000-barrel-per-day heavy-oil processing plant.

The Shell/Qatar Petroleum Pearl gas-to-liquids project in Qatar will undergo a “ramp-up” in production for about 12 months during 2011, Shell-Pearl managing director Andy Brown revealed at the recent Mideast PetroTech conference in Bahrain.

Petrobras officials announced June 23 that they’ve signed a memo of understanding with the owners of the shuttered, 15,000-barrel-per-day Refineria Manguinhos refinery in Brazil, aiming to restart fuels production.

Indonesia government officials announced last week that they aim to trim government price subsidies on diesel and gasoline because of budget problems.

Petrobras officials June 21 unveiled a US$224 billion investment plan for 2010 to 2014, 53% of which will go for upstream oil and gas and all but 5% (US$11.7 billion) targeted for Brazil.

Botswana’s shortage of coal-fired baseload electric power means the country will have to spend more than US$4 billion over the next three years on diesel fuel for peak-power plants, according to a report last week from Mmegi news service (Botswana).

Ultra low sulfur diesel prices in major world spot and futures markets declined last week on relatively hefty supplies, despite growing signs of a rebound in global distillate demand.

Ultra-low sulfur diesel spot and futures prices slipped in major markets last week.