Oil Industry Headlines: Week of September 21
Gasoline prices topped the $3 mark for the first time in over a year, said the Energy Information Administration in its weekly report. Although prices typically fall this time of year (after the summer driving season boom), recurrent refinery outages have resulted in unusually low gasoline and diesel inventories. Motiva Enterprises, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Royal Dutch Shell, announced plans to expand its Port Arthur, Texas refinery by 325,000 barrels a day. The expansion, which is expected to be completed in 2010, will make the Port Arthur refinery the largest in the United States and one of the largest in the world. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, ended a four month hiatus in activity by promising more attacks on oil facilities and abductions of foreign workers. According to an email sent by the group, hopes of productive dialogue with new President Umaru Yar’Adua have been abandoned, thus prompting them to resume their campaign to subvert oil and gas operations within the area. According to Reuters, “Gunmen disguised as soldiers killed a Colombian oil worker and abducted two other foreigners in Nigeria on Thursday in a raid on the construction yard of oil services company Saipem.” In an email sent from MEND to Reuters, the group denied involvement but suggested that its recent announcement may have prompted the attack.Published Thursday, September 27th, 2007 at 1:32 pm and filed under Industry News.