The managing director of Iran’s Jey Oil Refining Company said the company, the biggest exporter of bitumen in Iran and the Middle East, is exporting the product to 19 countries.

South Korean paraxylene (PX) producer S-Oil has changed the pricing basis for its 2020 term contract to include Argus cfr Taiwan and China assessments.

Keith Couch is senior programme director in Honeywell UOP's technology sales and integrated projects group. Honeywell UOP is an international supplier and licensor of process technology, catalysts and adsorbents to the petroleum refining, petrochemical and gas processing industries. In this interview, edited for length and clarity, Keith talks about the challenges for export-dependent refineries and opportunities for downstream petrochemicals.

Indian state-controlled refiner IOC is expected to increase production in the coming months at its new 700,000 t/yr polypropylene (PP) plant at Paradip in east India's Odisha state.

Opec anticipates a global refining surplus of nearly 4mn b/d in 2024, a substantial increase from the excess it flagged a year ago, and it has more than doubled the amount of refinery capacity it expects will close as a result.

Light crude service on a planned reversal of the 1.2mn b/d Capline pipeline from Patoka, Illinois, to St James, Louisiana, will be delayed because of the timing of a connecting project.

Bogota, 4 November (Argus) ? A group of bondholders is urging the White House to untie its hands in an increasingly acrimonious struggle with Venezuela's political opposition over US refiner Citgo, the Opec country's most valuable international asset.

The trustees of a controversial bond issued by Venezuela's state-owned PdV have been thrust into a political struggle for control of the country's most valuable overseas asset, US refiner Citgo.

Rio Tinto has reportedly begun the commissioning of an industry-leading filter press technology at its Vaudreuil alumina refinery in Quebec, under CAD $250 million budget. Four 85-tonne presses have been already installed. The original scheduled time of commissioning the presses was six weeks later.

US refiner PBF Energy is looking to a handful of projects to improve its already strong position for meeting new International Maritime Organization (IMO) marine fuel regulations that start on 1 January.