Clifford C. Cook, a Marathon Oil senior vice president, told Reuters Jan. 28 that the company’s expansion of the Garyville, La., refinery is nearly completed. Cook said the biggest part of the US$3.2 billion project – a 180,000 barrel-per-day (b/d) crude unit –already is running, which upgrades the refinery's capacity from 256,000 b/d to 436,000 b/d.

ConocoPhillips’ vice president of corporate affairs, Clayton Reason, told the Houston Chronicle Jan. 27 that the company will look for “‘creative ways’ to reduce its exposure to the troubled refining business as it intensifies its focus on its more profitable oil and natural gas exploration and production arm.”

Brazilian national oil company Petrobras and General Electric on Jan. 19 held the inauguration of the Juiz de Fora (UTE JF) power plant, which uses the world’s first gas turbine system that runs off sugarcane-based ethanol to produce electricity on a full commercial scale, according to the companies.

Increases in crude and refined product prices are closely aligned with domestic GDP, according to an energy outlook report released by the EIA earlier this month. The short term energy outlook sees WTI prices averaging $84 per barrel in 2011.

Sasol’s announced plan to explore a coal-to-liquids project in Indonesia took another step forward last week when company officials began negotiations with state-owned oil refinery Pertamina and also with coal miner PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam.

Germany-based Choren officials announced Jan. 29 that they’ve signed a deal with France-based engineering company CNIM for design and construction of a synthesis gas production facility using biomass feedstock.

Australian-based Liberty Resources officials on Jan. 27 announced that they’ve secured nine coal dispositions at Gold Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada, and they’re also awaiting the transfer of a further four dispositions, opening an opportunity for a potential underground coal gasification (UCG) project.

While developers of waste-to-energy (WTE) projects in North America often struggle with permitting and financing issues, Asian WTE is likely to grow at a 6.7% annual rate for thermal projects, and 9.7% for biological projects from 2008 to 2015, according to a new report from Frost & Sullivan.