-Sasol CEO David Constable said the construction of his firm’s proposed gas-to-liquids (GTL) facility would depend on cost overruns at a new ethane cracker it is building in Lake Charles, La. Sasol on Monday announced it would move forward with the construction of the $8.1 billion, 1.5 million-tons-per-year cracker. Constable has estimated the GTL facility would cost $14 billion. It is currently in the front-end engineering and design phase.
-Northern Border Pipeline announced a non-binding open season for a 64-mile natural gas pipeline between Hess Corp.’s Tioga, N.D., processing plant and an interconnection. Via Platts, the project will be capable of transporting 295,000 million cubic feet of gas per day. The open season will end Nov. 26.
-BG Group will delay its Prince Rupert LNG export facility project until next decade, the Wall Street Journal reports. The firm’s interim executive chairman on Tuesday said BG would continue working on the project, but not at the same pace as it had before. BG previously expected to begin construction as early as 2016. The company cited shifting market conditions, including an expected surge of U.S. natural gas into the global market, as the reason for the delay.
-NOVA Chemicals named Naushad Jamani senior vice president of olefins and feedstock, effective Jan. 1. Jamani will replace Grant Thomson, who will retire at the end of this year. Jamani is a 35-year NOVA veteran who currently manages the acquisition of feedstock at the company’s Corunna, Ontario, facility and heads sales and marketing for all of NOVA’s olefins products.
-Valero CEO Joe Gorder will take over as chairman of the board Dec. 31, succeeding recently retired CEO Bill Klesse. It will mark the end of Klesse’s 45-year career with Valero and its successor companies. Gorder replaced Klesse as CEO in May.
