Chexpress - November 6, 2012

North America

Fuel Waivers

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has exercised its authority under the Clean Air Act to temporarily waive federal clean diesel fuel requirements in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and in and around New York City to allow the use of home heating oil in highway vehicles, non-road vehicles, and non-road equipment designated by the States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York for emergency response. These waivers were granted by the EPA in coordination with the Department of Energy (DOE).

Expansion

CF Industries Inc. plans to invest $1.7 billion in Iowa to expand its facility on the south edge of Sioux City. The project is the largest capital investment ever for the state of Iowa. The project will add new ammonia and granular urea production plants to the existing CF Industries facility. It will create 100 new jobs at the plant, with the expansion operational by 2016.

Bid Win

Transportadora de Gas Natural del Noroeste, a subsidiary of TransCanada, has entered a $1 billion deal with Mexico’s Comision Federal Electricidad (CFE) to build, own and operate the El Encino-to-Topolobampo pipeline. The pipeline will be 30-inches in diameter and span 329 miles, starting from El Encino and ending in Topolobampo. TransCanada said the pipeline will also interconnect with other pipelines that will be built separately through bid processes by CFE. The pipeline is supported by a 25-year natural gas transportation service contract. TransCanada expects the pipeline to begin service in the third quarter of 2016.

 

World

PTW/PET Plant

Plans have been announced for a plant with the capability to produce around 1 million tons of petrochemicals at Sohar Industrial Port in Oman. The Omani government will invest approximately $800 million in the plant which will produce purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET), ingredients that will trigger further investments in the downstream sector.

Downstream Framework Deal

Fluor Corporation has announced that Shell awarded the company a five-year enterprise framework agreement for engineering and project management services for Shell’s downstream, and potentially upstream, onshore projects in Europe, Africa and the Middle East (EAME). Flour will provide design, project and construction management, home-office and site-based engineering services. The agreement includes an option to be extended for another five years and opportunities to include Shell’s upstream projects and other geographic regions.

Bionaphtha Production and Sale

Neste Oil has started producing and selling on a commercial scale “green” or bio-based naphtha for petrochemical customers. The bionaphtha can be used as a feedstock for producing bioplastics and as a bio-component for gasoline. The bio-based naphtha is being manufactured at the company’s biodiesel facilities worldwide, including its $1.2 billion Singapore plant.

Purchase

Bibby Offshore has purchased the dive support vessel Toisa Polaris. The company said the move will produce as many as 60 North Sea jobs. The vessel will be renamed the Bibby Polaris and join’s Bibby’s fleet of five subsea support vessels. The purchase price was not disclosed.