-The sale and reboot of the Hovensa refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands could have major implications for the East Coast refining market, Platts reports. Sources say the refinery would likely displace U.S. gasoline exports to the Caribbean, South America and other markets if restarted by prospective new owners Atlantic Basin Refining. Hovensa product shipments are not subject to the Jones Act, providing a shipping cost advantage over U.S. refiners. Some analysts, however, are skeptical Hovensa will return to production. Atlantic Basin Refining entered a tentative agreement to buy Hovensa from PDVSA and Hess Corp. last month.
-Pembina Pipeline will proceed with a $210 million project to expand its pipeline infrastructure in British Columbia. The expansion will transport up to 75,000 barrels per day of condensate and NGLs for producers in the Montney play. Pembina will build a 100-mile pipeline that will parallel its existing Blueberry pipeline system. The expansion is expected to be in service in 2017.
-The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) on Monday issued its final regulatory report on the process fire that ripped through Chevron’s Richmond, Calif., refinery in 2012. CSB reiterated its view that U.S. refineries should adopt the European approach of reducing risks to “as low as reasonably practicable.” The board has also said the current approach for regulating refinery process safety is too reactive. CSB’s investigation of the Richmond incident found that Chevron repeatedly failed to apply inherently safer design and upgrade piping in the process unit that caught fire.
-The American Petroleum Institute published four new standards and one revised standard for the design, construction and maintenance of offshore drilling and production structures. API said new technology that allows producers to tap previously unreachable offshore resources spurred the new standards and the revision.
-Dow Chemical agreed to sell Angus Chemical Co. to Golden Gate Capital for $1.2 billion. Illinois-based Angus is the world’s only chemical company dedicated to the manufacture of nitroalkalines and their derivatives, according to Dow. Its assets include a manufacturing facility near Monroe, La. The sale is part of Dow’s effort to divest as much as $6 billion in global assets by the end of next year. Dow said today it hopes to sell off between $7 billion and $8.5 billion by the middle of 2016.
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