-Independent refiners are gearing up for a heavy turnaround season early next year, Argus reports. Industry experts said maintenance delayed by this year’s refinery strike would likely get deferred to the first half of next year. HollyFrontier is planning work at its refineries in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and El Dorado, Kansas, in early 2016, and Husky will start eight weeks of maintenance in Lima, Ohio, next March. Meanwhile, refiners such as Alon, CVR Refining, Marathon Petroleum and PBF Energy are planning major work this fall.
-BP is repairing the largest crude unit at its Whiting, Indiana, refinery, Reuters reports. The 240,000-barrel-per-day unit was shut down by a malfunction on Saturday.
-Questar Corp. has delayed a plan to connect a long dormant pipeline to an active crude pipeline that serves refineries in Long Beach, California. Via the Desert Sun, Questar had planned to connect the 58-year-old pipeline, which has not been in use since 1998, to active lines via a new rail terminal. Questar said the project would not start up by early 2017 as originally planned, but it could still reactivate it, sell it or convert it to oil service from the San Juan Basin.
-LyondellBasell agreed to acquire India-based PPC manufacturer SJS Plastiblends — a deal the company said would expand its footprint in India’s automotive plastics market. LyondellBasell said India is the world’s fourth largest growing market for automobiles. It has supplied the Indian market through imports and tolling arrangements since 2009. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the year.
-CVR Partners will buy Rentech Nitrogen Partners for $533 million, a deal CVR says will create the nation’s second largest producer of urea ammonium nitrate. Via FuelFix, the transaction will not include Rentech’s plant in Pasadena, Texas, which is the largest producer of synthetic granulated ammonium sulfate fertilizer in North America.
