HPCL’s Mumbai refinery is preparing to supply India’s mega-cities with Euro-4 gasoline as well as Euro-3 fuels for the rest of the country. The facility had been undergoing a project upgrade involving the FCC unit, reformer, isomerization unit and related naphtha hydrotreaters.

The global refinery catalyst market is growing by 5.4%, according to the most recent study by Research and Markets. The report examines in detail the major types of catalysts employed for meeting various processing and environmental objectives.

Exxon Mobil's 562,500 barrel-per-day Baytown, Texas, refinery was among several U.S. Gulf Coast refineries that faced unit upsets and other issues related to a three days of freezing and sub-freezing temperatures, according to Reuters.

CB&I officials announced Jan. 11 that Petrochina Jilin Petrochemical Company (Jilin) has awarded a contract to Lummus Technology, a CB&I company, for the license and process design of a grassroots ethylbenzene and styrene monomer (EB/SM) plant in Jilin, China.

Alfa Laval officials announced they have received an order for their “Packinox” heat exchangers from an Algerian refinery with an estimated order value of 60 million SEK (US$8.5 million).

A few refinery cogeneration projects are projected over the next three years. However, even in a margins leveraged industry, there may be higher than expected activity beyond 2010 to push these more of these projects forward.

Glencore has stopped supplying gasoline to Iran to avoid fallout from U.S. sanctions on companies supplying fuel to the Islamic republic.

All oil refiners in Japan will be blending ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE) by the end of fiscal 2010, according to a report from Nikkei news service (Japan).

The Shell/Saudi Aramco Sasref joint-venture refinery will commence exports of ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) by end-January, according to a Reuters report quoting Sasref executive vice-president Raja Ahmad Murad Bin Raja Bahrin.

Oil major Total on Jan. 11 officially launched its first carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration project at its Lacq natural gas processing plant in France.

Bender Consulting describes the downstream market in 2010 as “shrink to grow,” and forecasts that super-majors will continue to optimize and reduce downstream headcount and markets of operation.