BIC Magazine highlights the top six most-read articles of 2018. Depending on how you digest our content from print to digital, each listed article reflects the content that matters most to you, our reader. These six articles show that the oil and gas industry is busy – expanding – and we predict that 2019 will be an even busier year for the industry.
Formosa selects St. James Parish for $9.4B Louisiana project
Gov. John Bel Edwards and Formosa Petrochemical Corp. executive Keh-Yen Lin announced the company has selected St. James Parish in Louisiana for a $9.4 billion chemical manufacturing complex and has purchased a 2,400-acre site along the west bank of the Mississippi River.
The Sunshine Project would create 1,200 new direct jobs averaging $84,500, plus benefits. Louisiana Economic Development estimates the project also would result in 8,000 new indirect jobs, for a total of more than 9,000 jobs in the River Parishes and surrounding regions of Louisiana.
Owners of idle St. Croix oil refinery plan 2019 restart
The owners of a long-closed oil refinery on St. Croix will disclose an agreement with the Caribbean island's governor to restart the plant and begin producing fuels late next year. The refinery would process up to 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) and supply low-sulfur fuels required by an International Maritime Organization mandate that begins in 2020.
BP Plc separately is in talks with the refinery's owners to supply crude to the plant, said two of the people familiar with the matter.
The deal under discussion would be similar to a supply and marketing arrangement BP struck with NARL Refining for the 115,000-bpd Come By Chance refinery in Newfoundland.
Louisiana approves 4 methanol plants; granted title V Air Quality permit
GP Methanol LLC was granted a title V Air Quality Permit by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality for their Gulf Coast Methanol facility, located in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. The Gulf Coast Methanol Park will consist of four identical methanol Plants or "trains" each producing 1.8 million tons per year of methanol from natural gas, making it the world's largest permitted methanol production facility.
The facility will employ up to 1,500 construction workers per plant, and over 325 well-paid permanent operation and maintenance jobs. Gulf Coast Methanol will bring tens of millions of dollars in wages, taxes and port fees into Plaquemines Parish.
Exxon begins preparing Texas refinery for shale oil expansion
Exxon Mobil Corp has begun groundwork at a Texas refinery that would become the largest in the United States in advance of a final investment decision on the expansion. The company also has begun hiring and training staff to operate what would be a third crude distillation unit at the site. The expansion would increase crude processing capacity at its Beaumont, Texas, refinery by at least 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the current 365,644 bpd.Initial work has begun and construction of the crude unit is scheduled to start next year after a final investment decision, with processing beginning by 2022.
The refinery added an initial eight operators, who are gaining experience working on the two existing crude units. They will move over to the new processing unit after it is built.
JV Driver awarded EPC contract from INEOS
JV Driver, in a joint venture with SNC-Lavalin, has been awarded a lump-sum engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract from INEOS Oligomers to design and build a polyalphaolefin (PAO) unit at the INEOS petrochemical complex in Chocolate Bayou, Texas.
The PAO unit, based on proprietary and differentiated INEOS Oligomers technology, is expected to come on line in October 2019 with a production capacity of 120,000 metric tons per annum and will contribute to INEOS Oligomers' ambitious growth plans.
Safety, ‘The A-Team’ stars of Dow’s Gulf Coast expansion
Everything is bigger in Texas, and Dow Chemical's $6 billion expansion project -- the world's largest ethylene cracker facility -- is proof.
Located in Freeport on the Texas Gulf Coast, the cracker started up in September 2017. Dow Commissioning and Startup Leader William Newton summarized the essence of that success. "Developing and executing the strategy, and then realizing the vision, are basic elements of the expansion's construction and startup," he said.
