-At least three refineries in the Northeast experienced disruptions due to severe winter weather. Via Reuters, Phillips 66’s Bayway refinery in Linden, N.J., experienced extended delays in restarting a crude unit. Delta Refinery in Trainer, Pa., was forced to shut down an FCCU and Philadelphia Energy Solutions idled a vacuum distillation unit.
-ExxonMobil will upgrade its Rotterdam refinery to produce high-quality lubricants, Reuters reports. The company may also expand processing capacity at the Rotterdam refinery by 40%. ExxonMobil did not comment on the cost of the project, but it is believed the investment could total up to 300 million euros (approximately US$340 million). The lubricants expansion project is set to begin construction in 2016, with startup to follow in 2018.
-Federal authorities said speed does not appear to have been a factor in an oil train derailment in West Virginia on Monday. Via the Associated Press, the train was traveling at 33 mph in an area where the speed limit was 50 mph. The Department of Transportation last summer proposed new safety rules for trains carrying oil that included speed restriction options mandating 40-mph speed limits in all areas. The derailment caused oil to leak into a tributary of the Kanawha River and sparked a fire that destroyed a house.
-TransCanada will seek U.S. government approval for a $600 million, 300,000-barrel-per-day crude pipeline that would run from Williston, N.D., to Canada. The company said the pipeline would help reduce rail traffic carrying crude.
-The Obama Administration today proposed a new set of rules specific to drilling activity in Arctic waters. Via FuelFix, companies would be required to be able to “promptly deploy” emergency control and containment systems in the event of a spill. They would also be required to have separate rigs at the ready to drill relief wells in the event of an emergency such as a blowout. American Petroleum Institute Director of Upstream Erik Milito called the separate rig requirement “unnecessarily burdensome.”
