BP PLC has started up a 250,000-b/d crude distillation unit at its Whiting, Ind., refinery. USA

The BP unit will result in the Whiting refinery returning to its 413,000-b/d nameplate processing capability and clears the way for remaining upgrades of new coking and hydrotreating units, the company said (OGJ Online, Feb. 1, 2011). (more…)

Total will use KBR’s proprietary ROSE solvent deasphalting technology in its upgrade of the 338,000-b/d refinery at Antwerp, Belgium (OGJ Online, May 23, 2013).

The ROSE unit, due on stream in early 2016, will split 48,000 b/sd of residue from a mix of crude oils into deasphalted oil and asphaltene. (more…)

Shell report New forecasts which indicate possible societal and energy trends over next 50 years

With the world’s population headed toward 9 billion at mid-century and millions of people climbing out of poverty, global energy demand could increase by as much as 80% by 2050, according to a new report from Shell. The report, New Lens Scenarios, looks much further into the future than most similar reports.

Shell’s futurologists envision two possible scenarios, covering trends in the economy, politics and energy over the next half a century, with dramatically different implications for society and the world’s energy system. (more…)

A fuel tanker explosion in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, has killed 31 people and left at least 20 others injured, police said. The accident happened on June 29 on the outskirts of Kampala after the tanker collided with a car. According to the semi-independent Daily Monitor newspaper, the fuel spilled from the tanker onto the road and ignited.

Some reports said the majority of the victims were trying to siphon fuel from the damaged tanker when the fuel ignited. (more…)

Britain could face power shortages towards the middle of the decade, UK energy regulator Ofgem has stated, with spare electricity power production capacity falling as low as 2% by 2015. Ofgem said that the risk of blackouts that year has trebled from the one-in-12 it estimated in October to just one-in-four, if energy demand remains at current levels.

Ministers are trying to encourage companies to spend more than £100 billion on new green energy infrastructure by offering huge subsidies. However, the new power stations will not have arrived in time to avert the possible squeeze in 2015.

Ofgem says that no new gas-fired power plants are expected until 2016 and it expects the equivalent of just one to start generating before the end of the decade. (more…)

According to BBC News, firefighters tackling a blaze on July 1 involving 100,000 tonnes of plastic recycling material at a factory unit in Smethwick say it is the largest fire seen in the West Midlands in recent years. Eyewitnesses said there were a number of large explosions and loud bangs before the fire took hold.

The fire service said 200 firefighters were at the scene in Smethwick, and three of them have been taken to hospital. An ambulance service spokesman said they had treated “nine patients for injuries received at the scene”. (more…)