-The EPA has entered into a consent decree with the top oil and gas and refining and petrochemical lobbying groups to release final Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) for 2014 and 2015 by Nov. 30. The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) and the American Petroleum Institute last month filed suit against the EPA to force the agency to issue the rules. AFPM says the lack of a final RFS has forced refiners to guess at their obligations to blend renewable fuels, creating harmful market uncertainty.
-The local United Steelworkers (USW) union representing workers at ExxonMobil’s Beaumont, Texas, refinery will reject the company’s latest contract offer, the Beaumont Enterprise reports. ExxonMobil has offered a contract two years longer than the four-year pact USW and Shell agreed to in March. Union leaders believe the longer contract would weaken their bargaining power in negotiations for the next contract. ExxonMobil is said to be pushing for the six-year contract to keep a proposed expansion of the Beaumont refinery on track.
-Enterprise Products Partners is gauging shipper demand for extra capacity on its Aegis ethane pipeline between Mont Belvieu, Texas, and Napoleonville, La. The first 60-mile segment of the 270-mile pipeline went into service last September and the remaining two phases will be complete by the end of the year, Enterprise said. Aegis will transport purity ethane from Enterprise’s liquids storage complex in Mont Belvieu to petrochemical plants in Texas and Louisiana.
-Canadian National Railway (CN) is planning to ship more heavy crude from Alberta than light oil from the Bakken Shale due to safety concerns associated with the latter, Platts reports. The railroad’s vice president for petroleum and chemicals said Thursday Alberta oil sands crude is less volatile than Bakken oil. CN trains carrying crude were involved in two separate derailment incidents in Ontario in February and March.
-Statoil discovered oil in its Miocene Yeti prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, located 220 miles south of New Orleans. Via FuelFix, the Norway-based company said there is more work to do in order to gauge the size of the find. Statoil operates the Yeti prospect in partnership with Anadarko and Samson.
