Klesch and Co. is the current bidder on Total’s Lindsey refinery in the U.K., according to a January 16 report in The Sunday Times (London). If this bid and the recent Klesch bid for Shell’s Heide refinery in Germany close, the London and Geneva-based firm will have two refineries with a combined crude processing capacity of 300,000 barrels per day (b/d). In 2010, the investment group’s chairman reportedly said that buying three to five refineries over the next five years was “doable.”

PetroChina Co. Ltd. (PetroChina) is working with Europe’s INEOS Group Holdings plc to form a joint venture in the downstream logistics space to trade and refine petroleum products, according to a January 10 announcement by the companies. The trading and refining activities will focus on the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland and the Lavera refinery in France.

SunCoke Energy, a subsidiary of the U.S.–based refiner and marketer Sunoco, Inc., announced on January 17 that it has purchased the Honaker, Va.-based Harold Keene Coal Co., Inc., its affiliated entities, and their related assets for about US$40 million in cash, including working capital. Coal reserve estimates for the assets of the entities being purchased total at least 16 million tons, and final estimates will be confirmed by a reserve study that is currently under way.

Essar Oil Ltd. of India is still negotiating to buy the Stanlow refinery in the U.K., and this confirmation reportedly comes from the buyer’s side.

Vopak on January 17 said it will follow in the footsteps of First Reserve Corp. (FRC) and sell its equity stake in the Bahamas Oil Refining Company International Ltd. (BORCO) terminal to U.S.-based pipeline and storage operator, Buckeye Partners, L.P.

Petrobras announced January 12 that December 2010 gasoline and aviation fuel sales set all-time records.

In 2010, U.S. upstream oil and gas firms moved from offshore to onshore plays as a result of the Macondo disaster, subsequent permitting slowdown in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and successful, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies at unconventional gas fields throughout the country.

Refiners who produce motor fuels with fluidized catalytic cracking units (FCCUs) are noting the price runs of rare earth metals used as catalysts, according to a January 8 Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report. Prices for at least two rare earth elements – lanthanum and cerium – tripled by the end of 2010, driving up refinery FCCU-catalyst costs by 25%, according to the report. Several key industry players contacted by Hart Energy’s Refinery Tracker (RT) displayed a keen focus on the price increases.

Prices for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil closed January 11 at $91.15 per barrel on the same day that the U.S. Energy Information Administration issued its revised Short Term Energy Outlook (STEO) showing forecasted spot WTI crude prices ramping to $93.42, up 8.5% over the $86.08 annual per barrel crude price forecast released just a few weeks ago on December 7.

Massive refinery, power and downstream logistics growth is planned in China, according to January 6 a Xinhua News Agency story. The populous nation is planning to boost its refining capacity by 20% in the next five years, according to the report. Refinery Tracker has compared that expansion to existing energy infrastructure capacities of some top-10 global economies.

China increased net imports of crude oil by 1.4% in December from the previous month as refineries maintained high operating rates to ease a diesel shortage, according to a January 10 Bloomberg report citing data from the Beijing-based General Administration of Customs (GAC).

Canada’s new Environment Minister Peter Kent announced January 5 that his country plans to follow U.S. President Barack Obama’s proposed rules for limiting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from oil refineries and power plants.

A new study from Purdue University, Alternative Pathways for Fulfilling the RFS Mandate, has found that the United States does not have the infrastructure needed in order to meet the federally mandated Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2), but while these limits cannot be met with ethanol, increases in cellulosic and next generation biofuels would make meeting the targets possible.

Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd plans an initial public offer (IPO) in May of 2011 to generate capital for an expansion of its refinery at Bina, Madhya Pradesh in India, GS Caltex will expand in Korea, CNOOC Projects Gains Shell’s Attention in China, and Essar’s tripling of earnings supports expansion plans by this integrated oil company in India.

In a continuing theme for European and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, refinery owners are looking to sell or convert processing plants into terminals by executing Refinery-To-Terminal (RTT) projects. News about two RTT projects in Germany came in this period – the Shell Harburg refinery and the ConocoPhillips Wilhelmshaven refinery. In another indicator of trends in western Europe, we also report on a potential project for a bio-refinery to be located in either Finland or France.

The refinery expansion plan at Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA, is being affected by lowered 2011 capital expenditure (capex) plans, after cuts as deep as 61% below former goal, according to an ADPnews Latin America report dated January 17. Combined with sub-plan capex in 2010, Hart Energy’s Refinery Tracker calculates that PDVSA’s 2010-2011 capex now appears to be than half of what was originally communicated in the company’s 2009 annual report.

The 10-nation Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) announced January 10 in its annual report that member-country refiners would add at least 5 million barrels per day (b/d) of refining capacity within four years.

Refinery Tracker reports on the restart of a California oil-country refinery which will effectively be integrated into a nearby Los Angeles County refinery, and we also present the news that Valero Energy Corp. is investing in an advanced ethanol fuels production company.