Two more integrated oil companies, Chevron and Marathon, warned fourth quarter results will be lower in the just-completed quarter than in recent periods.

Chevron said lower commodity prices, lower downstream margins and lower refinery utilization will adversely affect fourth quarter numbers.

Downstream results will be impacted by a 75-day shut-down of the Pascagoula, Miss., refinery’s FCC until mid-December. In addition, the El Segundo, Calif., refinery experienced major planned maintenance.

A long-awaited report on safety at BP’s five U.S. refineries, released yesterday, found serious problems with the way the company promotes process safety – and even inconsistencies in the company’s own view of its process safety performance and the performance itself.

BP asked former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker to lead an 11-member panel to investigate the safety culture at its five U.S. refineries on the recommendation of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB), which is investigating the March 2005 explosion and fire at BP’s Texas City, Texas, refinery, which killed 15 people and injured more than 170.

Brazilian state oil company Petrobras said recently that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s intent to nationalize the power and telecommunications industries will not interfere with Petrobras’ investments in the country, according to the Xinhua news service.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) last month released its Annual Energy Outlook for 2007 (AEO2007), showing a likely big increase in consumption of biofuels and coal-to-liquids diesel fuel.

EIA sees “growth in coal-to-liquids (CTL) capacity and production, growing demand for unconventional transportation technologies (such as flex-fuel, hybrid, and diesel vehicles), growth in nuclear power capacity and generation, and accelerated improvements in energy efficiency throughout the economy,” the report says.

Deutsche Bank said in a global refining outlook for 2007 released this week that worldwide refining capacity is still squeezed, with spare capacity at two million b/d.

In one part of the report, the bank said that new upgrading capacity coming on line in the U.S. in 2008 will temper the strength of global markets. The Middle East will see new upgrading capacity in 2010-2011.

Petrobras’ average oil load increased 1.5% in 2006 to 1,784,000 barrels per day (bpd), setting a new record for Brazilian refineries, according to a Petrobras press release.

In 2005, the load processed at the company’s Brazil refineries produced 1,758,000 bpd.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an executive order to reduce the carbon intensity of the state’s transportation fuels at least 10% by 2020.

The governor’s order also calls for a carbon standard for transportation fuels. It will be developed by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) with help from the California Energy Commission during the next 18 months.

Consulting firm Frost & Sullivan estimates that the North American Biodiesel Market could earn as much as $4.9 billion in revenues in 2012 if federal tax incentives continue beyond 2008.

Other factors that could influence favorable revenues for biofuels include continued higher crude oil prices and U.S. federal regulations on renewable fuel, they said.

Costa Rica’s state refinery Recope announced recently that it plans to be able to produce ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) fuel by 2010, La Nacion reported.

U.S. oil major ConocoPhillips said recently that its refining and marketing margins during the fourth quarter 2006 were much lower than its margins in the third quarter.

The company’s weighted U.S. refining margin for the fourth quarter is $4.37/bbl lower than in the prior quarter, the company said in its Fourth-Quarter 2006 Interim Update. The decreases ranged from $1.34/bbl on the U.S. West Coast to $7.64/bbl in the Mid-Continent U.S.

U.S. auto giant General Motors (GM) announced U.S. sales of 341,327 vehicles for December, down 9.6% from the company’s sales in December 2005.

For the year 2006, GM’s U.S. sales decreased 8.7%, to 4.1 million vehicles.

The Marketing and Economic Operations Department of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) saw a 46% increase in oil product exports from 2005 to 2006, according to a Trend News Agency release.

From January to December 2006, SOCAR exported 2,925,700 million tons of oil products, while during the same period in 2005, it exported 1,998,303 tons.

India’s Reliance wants to partner with Yemen’s Hood Oil to build a 50,000 b/d refinery along the Red Sea coast of the Middle Eastern country, Yemen’s oil minister said.

Vietnamese tissue paper maker Hapaco has reached an agreement with Belgian energy group IPEMNV to build a refinery in Dinh Vu Industrial Park, Vietnam, Thanh Nien News reported.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced recently it is funding a series of studies of Asian cities in order to develop blueprints for sustainable urban transport systems.

The studies will be backed by an ADB grant of $1 million and will be aimed to identify investment programs in support of efficient transportation.

Kuwait is reevaluating plans to build a new 615,000 b/d refinery in Al-Zour after international contractors proposed a cost of $15 billion, Dow Jones reported, citing a Kuwait National Petroleum (KPC) official.

India’s Essar Oil is discussing with Iran the possibility of building a $2 billion, 300,000 b/d refinery in Bandar Abbas, Iran, Reuters reported.

Japan’s Suzuki aims to introduce a gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle in Japan, the U.S. and Europe in order to meet stronger clear-air regulations, the company’s president said.

Citing an eventual environmental catastrophe, the European Commission recently proposed a legislative package to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20% by 2020 through energy usage changes. The proposed Energy Policy includes a minimum 10% market share of the transport sector for biofuels by 2010.

The EC said that current projections show greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions rising by around 5% by 2030. At the same time, there is a 50% chance that global temperatures will rise during this century by more than 5ºC. The EC believes an international agreement can be reached to lead to a 30% cut in GHGs from developed countries by 2020.

Indian Oil (IOC), which already has plans to build a new refinery in Nigeria, also wants to purchase a stake in the Nigeria’s state-owned 6 million ton per year refinery at Port Harcourt, India’s Business Standard reported.

BP CEO John Browne will retire at the end of July after more than 10 years heading the British oil major, the company announced.

Tony Hayward, the company’s current head of exploration and production, will take over as CEO.

Shell is conducting a strategic review to consider whether it should sell off some of its refining and petrochemical feedstock assets, the company said.

Refineries under consideration for divestiture include the Petit-Couronne and Reichstett-Vendenheim refineries and the Berre-l'Etang refinery site complex in France, with a combined capacity of around 300,000 b/d. Also under consideration for sale is the Yabucoa petrochemical feedstock plant in Puerto Rico, with a capacity of 79,000 b/d of fuels and ethylene feedstock.

British oil major BP recently reported significantly lower refining and marketing margins in the fourth quarter 2006.

The disruption of crude supplies from the Druzhba pipeline due to a transit dispute between Russia and Belarus has forced refiners in several European countries to dip into their crude stocks.

Refiners in Germany, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic have been affected and the refineries in those countries that rely on crude from the Druzhba pipeline have started drawing crude from their operational stocks, the European Union (EU) said yesterday.

France’s Technip announced recently that it has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction management contract by Poland’s PKN Orlen for a hydrogen plant at PKN’s Plock refinery in Poland.

Technip’s work will include licensing, design and supply of equipment and materials, construction management and supervision, and start-up services and training.

Libya and Tunisia are discussing building a new oil refinery in the al-Skira region of Tunisia, Libya’s economy, trade and investment minister told Reuters.