-LyondellBasell has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the United Steelworkers, claiming striking union members have threatened employees returning to work and have harassed them on social media. In a letter to the National Labor Relations Board, LyondellBasell vice president Kevin Brown said the company has witnessed threatening behavior by union workers at the gates of its Houston refinery. A Shell employee last month filed a federal charge against a local Steelworkers union for intimidating workers who refused to leave their jobs.
-Meanwhile, LyondellBasell’s refinery isn’t the only facility to which workers are returning. Via Bloomberg, Shell said about 800 union workers have crossed the picket lines at its Deer Park, Texas, refinery. Workers are also returning to their jobs at refineries owned by Motiva and Tesoro. The union claims only a fraction of the 6,000 strikers have gone back to work since the walkout began Feb. 1 and that Shell targeted the “low-hanging fruit” in Deer Park.
-BASF plans to expand production capacity for about 20 specialty amines at its Ludwigshafen, Germany, site. BASF said it would invest a “double-digit million euro amount” into the project and bring the expanded facilities on line in 2017.
-ExxonMobil said it would cut capital spending by 12% this year as it brings major projects online. The company expects to start up 16 major oil and gas projects within the next three years and increase daily production to 4.3 million oil-equivalent barrels by 2017. Seven new projects are expected to start up this year, including Hadrian South in the Gulf of Mexico.
-Bear Head LNG has applied to the Department of Energy to export U.S. natural gas to Canada. Via PennEnergy, the facility’s location in Nova Scotia puts it about half the distance to major European markets when compared to LNG export terminals on the Gulf Coast.
