-ExxonMobil’s ethylene plant in Beaumont, Texas, is back up and running after a power outage last week, Platts reports. The company shut process compressors Nov. 10, according to documents filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
-Meanwhile, the flexicoker at PDVSA’s Amuay refinery was still down on Monday following a blackout earlier this month. Via Reuters, the refinery’s cat cracker has resumed operations. Venezuela has been scrambling to buy up diesel and gasoline after the outage struck the Amuay refinery and PDVSA’s Cardon refinery. The main units of both refineries are now operational.
-A fire broke out at Northern Tier Energy’s refinery in St. Paul Park, Minn., this morning. Via MPR News, it was quickly extinguished, but the company still evacuated all non-essential personnel. The fire started in a vacuum tower and may have been caused by cleaning chemicals, a company spokesman said.
-Halliburton CEO Dave Lesar today told NBC his firm agreed to buy Baker Hughes because it needed to be bigger to compete in today’s energy marketplace. Lesar said the decision was not driven by the recent oil price slump, but acknowledged that price volatility “hurts the industry.”
-Shale drillers, meanwhile, are keeping their production levels high despite the drop in prices and fewer rigs. Via Bloomberg, companies such as Devon Energy, Continental Resources and EOG Resources plan to pump more oil from their most productive properties while cutting back in less fertile territory. U.S. oil production surpassed 9 million barrels per day for the first time since 1983, according to the Energy Information Administration. West Texas Intermediate crude settled at $74.61 per barrel today.
