-Gasoline prices in the Gulf Coast region have jumped 20 cents per gallon in the past two weeks amid a spate of refinery shutdowns and planned maintenance, Bloomberg reports. Offline FCCU capacity is at its highest level for this time of year since 2011. Alon USA, ExxonMobil and Citgo are among refiners who have recently reported equipment failures.
-Dow Chemical launched the sale of its epoxy and chlorine businesses, hiring two banks to manage the process and reaching out to potential buyers. Via Reuters, the businesses have a combined EBITDA of $500 million, and initial estimates placed their value between $3.5 billion and $4 billion. Axiall and Westlake Chemical are mentioned in Reuters’ piece as potential buyers, though the firms did not comment on the sale.
-Malaysia’s Petronas is threatening to pull out of its proposed $10 billion Pacific Northwest LNG project in Canada if British Columbia’s provincial government fails to pass tax measures for the LNG industry. Petronas chief executive Shamsul Abbas recently told the Financial Times Canada has to “buck up real fast” if it wants to be taken seriously as a global LNG player by investors. British Columbia has promised that the legislation would be approved by the end of November.
-Analysts at IHS said Saudi Aramco is becoming a “force to be reckoned with” in petrochemicals seven years after the company made its first foray into the space. Chemicals now make up 10% of all revenues and earnings for the Saudi oil giant, which is the world’s sixth-largest refiner.
-The American Petroleum Institute published a new set of recommended practices for testing and classifying crude oil to be shipped by rail. The new standards provide guidance on initial and ongoing crude oil sampling, including how to determine the frequency of testing, establish a sampling program and document results. API also outlines how to assign the correct packing group and prevent overfill when loading oil onto tank cars.
