-Phillips 66 earlier this week reported a fluid catalytic cracking unit at its Borger, Texas, refinery was shut down for piping repairs. Via Reuters, work on the unit 29 FCCU began on Sunday and will continue until Aug. 25. The Borger refinery’s No. 40 FCCU is also undergoing maintenance scheduled through Aug. 27.
-The disparity between booming oil production in the Permian Basin and lagging pipeline construction has created a bottleneck of oil in Texas, Reuters reports. A resulting discount between Midland crude and other Gulf Coast grades is forcing refiners to pay a premium for oil.
-The government’s recently proposed timeline for phasing out older tank cars that carry crude oil could place undue pressure on new car production and old car retrofit capacity, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Department of Transportation last month proposed removing all DOT-111 cars from the tracks by 2018. Analysts say the railcar industry would face difficulty in producing enough new cars to meet the DOT’s deadline. Moreover, small railcar repair shops unaccustomed to large-scale maintenance hold most of the retrofit capacity in the U.S.
-Kentucky Utilities and Louisville Gas & Electric have called off plans to build a $700 million natural gas-fired power plant at the site of a coal plant due to be retired in Muhlenberg County, Ky. The companies said they cancelled plans to build the plant after nine municipalities announced their intentions to terminate power contracts with Kentucky Utilities in 2019. The companies are still planning to retire the Green River Station coal-fired plant.
-Meanwhile, Spectra Energy has shelved a plan to build a $4 billion, 427-mile natural gas pipeline from Pennsylvania to North Carolina. Via the Associated Press, the company did not give a reason for the project’s suspension, but a Spectra spokesman said the firm is evaluating other opportunities in the region.
