-City officials said Tuesday Chevron’s planned refinery upgrades in Richmond, Calif., will result in no net increase in greenhouse gas emissions, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The $1 billion project would allow the plant to handle crudes with higher sulfur content than what it currently processes, among other upgrades. Chevron has been trying to upgrade the plant for nearly 10 years, but ongoing tensions with local residents and officials have stalled many of its plans. The Richmond facility was the site of a major process unit fire in 2012.
-BP submitted 31 bids in the federal government’s sale of central Gulf of Mexico leases, which began today. Via FuelFix, eight of those bids are for blocks in the Mississippi Canyon area, which is located near the company’s Macondo well. The EPA last week lifted a two-year ban that prevented BP from bidding on new federal contracts.
-Via Bloomberg, Enterprise Products Partners plans to kick off the expansion of its Seaway pipeline in May. The project will more than double the system’s capacity to deliver oil from Cushing, Okla., to Gulf Coast refineries. An Enterprise official on Tuesday told analysts the upgraded system would be in service in late May or early June.
-A pipeline owned by Sunoco Logistics Partners spilled 240 barrels of crude oil in southwest Ohio on Monday. The company said in a statement the line had been shut and the spill was contained. Early indications are that the spilled oil did not reach the nearby Great Miami River.
-PPG Industries announced plans for a $27 million expansion of its coatings facility in San Juan Del Rio, Mexico. The expansion will add 100,000 square feet of production and laboratory space, which will accommodate a 30% workforce increase. PPG expects to complete the upgrades next year.
