ExxonMobil faces 2.8 million pound charge for not reporting greenhouse gas emissions

(greentechlead) -- The ExxonMobil oil company has been fined GBR2.8 million for failing to report greenhouse gas emissions from its chemical plant in Scotland. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency fined the company in 2010-11 for not reporting 33,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions from its Mossmorran ethylene plant in Fife.

It is the largest fine for an environmental offence in British history, according to a media report.
EU laws place strict rules on companies for accurately reporting emissions, with EUR100 fines (83 pound) for every ton they miss.

The money from the fine has been passed to the Scottish Government to fund environmental projects.
Four other companies have also been penalized for underestimating greenhouse gas emissions from plants in Scotland: Dow Chemical Company (Grangemouth), Tennent Caledonian (Glasgow), Pernod Ricard (Glasgow) and FMC BioPolymer (Girvan).

MRC

(hydrocarbonprocessing) -- The EU could handle a sudden end to imports of Iranian oil because of changes already being made due to the coming ban on Iranian shipments, an IEA official said. But the official also warned that the standoff has the potential to hurt the global economy by pushing oil prices higher.

The European Union (EU) could handle a sudden end to imports of Iranian oil because of changes already being made due to the EU's coming ban on Iranian shipments, an International Energy Agency (IEA) official said Monday, according to media reports.

"France and the UK have already stopped buying crude from Iran" ahead of an embargo scheduled to start in July, said Didier Houssin, the IEA's director of markets and securit.

But Houssin also warned the standoff between the West and Iran did have the potential in hitting the global economy by pushing oil prices higher. On Monday, they climbed to a nine-month high above USD105/bbl in electronic trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Floor trading was closed due to the US Presidents Day holiday.

MRC

(sibur) -- Russia and Eastern Europe's largest petrochemical company SIBUR and India's largest private company Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) have agreed to form a joint venture named Reliance Sibur Elastomers Private Limited to produce 100,000 tonnes of butyl rubber per year in Jamnagar, India.


The joint venture will be the first manufacturer of butyl rubber in India and the fourth largest supplier of butyl rubber in the world. The JV will meet demand for synthetic rubber from the Indian automotive industry, whose current requirement for more than 75,000 tonnes per year is satisfied by imports.

Reliance Industries will own 74.9% of the JV with SIBUR 25.1%. The JV will invest USD450 million to construct the production facility, which is expected to be commissioned in mid-2014. RIL and SIBUR also signed a technology licence agreement facilitating use of SIBUR's proprietary butyl rubber production technology at the new facility. SIBUR will develop basic engineering design for the facility and also train the JV's personnel at its production site in Togliatti, Russia.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is India's largest private sector company with a turnover of INR 2,58,651 crore (USD 58.0 billion), cash profit of INR 34,530 crore (USD 7.7 billion), net profit of INR 20,286 crore (USD 4.5 billion) and net worth of INR 1,51,540 crore (USD 34.0 billion) as of March 31, 2011.

SIBUR is the largest petrochemical company in Russia and Eastern Europe, one of the fastest growing petrochemical companies in the world and in the top three by EBITDA margin in the petrochemical industry globally. The Company is one of the top two European synthetic rubbers producers.

MRC

(plasteurope) -- By April 2012, HPCL-Mittal (HMEL, Bathinda, Punjab / India) - a joint venture between Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL, Mumbai / India) and Mittal Energy (Singapore) plans to commission a new 440,000 t/y PP plant at its headquarters in Bathinda. According to media reports posted on the company's website, the facility will also produce PP homopolymers.

HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited (HMEL) is a joint venture between Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and Mittal Energy Investment Pte Ltd, Singapore - a Lakshmi N Mittal Group Company. Both the JV partners hold a stake of 49% each in the company, the rest 2% is held by financial institutions. The land mark public-private partnership company has built the 9 MMTPA Guru Gobind Singh Refinery.

HPCL is a Government of India Enterprise with a Navratna Status, and a Fortune 500 and Forbes 2000 company, with an annual turnover of Rs. 1,32,670 Crores and sales/income from operations of Rs 1,43,396 Crores (US$ 31,546 Millions) during FY 2010-11, having about 20% Marketing share in India among PSUs and a strong market infrastructure. HPCL's Crude Thruput and Market Sales (including exports) are 14.75 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) and 27.03 MMT respectively in the same period.

MRC

(hydrocarbonprocessing) -- Union workers at three more Tesoro refineries have rejected new labor contracts, setting up the potential for a strike. A general strike at Tesoro's refineries still negotiating could shut down 500,000 bpd of refining capacity, though it wouldn't spread to refineries run by other companies.

Union workers at three more Tesoro refineries have rejected new labor contracts, setting up the potential for a strike. A general strike at Tesoro's refineries still negotiating contracts could shut down a combined 500,000 bpd of refining capacity.

United Steelworker (USW) locals at Tesoro's refineries in Anacortes, Wash., Martinez, Calif., and Kapolei, Hawaii, voted against the tentative three-year contract agreed upon on Jan. 31 by the union's national representatives and Royal Dutch Shell's US arm Shell Oil.

Workers at Tesoro's Mandan, N.D., refinery are in negotiations after having rejected the contract earlier in the month, while those at the company's Salt Lake City, Utah, facility haven't voted on the contract, said USW spokeswoman Lynne Hancock. A strike at Tesoro's refineries wouldn't spread to those run by other companies, she added.

At the Tesoro 120,000 bpd Anacortes refinery, where an April 2010 explosion killed seven people, 98% of voting USW members rejected the contract, according to the local union's website.

MRC