News

Shell continues to sell off its refineries across the US, however it plans on holding on to the Norco refinery. Read more here.

It’s official. The Shell Puget Sound Plant (PSP) refinery has been sold to HollyFrontier. There will be new coveralls at the refinery and a new... Read more »

  The oil and gas industry has been slow to adopt digitalization, but as the world is becoming even more connected, leveraging their digital assets... Read more »

An east-coast PBF Energy is closing down many of its units and laying of hundreds of workers in the wake of lower fuel demand because... Read more »

A barge in “refinery row” near the Port of Corpus Christi hit a submerged pipeline resulting in an explosion, fire, and several injuries. Read more... Read more »

Due to gross mismanagement by the government of their primary natural resource over the past decade, Venezuelan oil production has fallen to record lows as... Read more »

Marathon Petroleum just announced that they will be permanently idling their Martinez, California refinery and another in New Mexico as a result of oil demand... Read more »

BP has agreed to sell its global petrochemicals business to billionaire Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos for $5 billion, pulling out of a sector widely seen as... Read more »

The Holly Frontier refinery in Cheyenne, Wyoming will be switching over from crude oil refining to biodiesel production by 2022. Read more about this upgrade... Read more »

The amount of refined products that refineries are producing today is down due to the stay-at-home policies caused by the covid-19 pandemic. These are world-wide... Read more »

Because airlines are making 95% fewer flights today than they were at the start of the year, oil refineries have a glut of jet fuel.... Read more »

Never before have oil prices fallen into negative numbers. Production, consumption, storage space, and political instability combine to form the perfect storm. Read more about... Read more »

According to Reuters, the spread of the corona virus has had a major impact on the completion of new construction, regular maintenance and turnarounds at... Read more »

The effects of corona virus quarantines causing low oil demand and the current oil price war has dropped oil prices to between $20-25 per barrel... Read more »

The one-two punch of falling oil prices & corona virus has resulted in a new-normal way of doing business in the oil patch. Read more... Read more »

Shell is selling two of its oil refineries. The Anacortes, WA oil refinery is where AIS first started back in 1995.  Read more about this... Read more »

PES refinery was once the largest refinery on the east coast. Now after a major fire and bankruptcy the site will be cleared for multiple-use... Read more »

Read what Chet Thompson, President of the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, has to say about this subject here.

Making petrochemicals like High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) is a high temperature, high pressure, high volume, and hazardous business. AIS Software creates software solutions for oil... Read more »

Philadelphia Energy Solutions recently received city zoning approval to carve out a 23-acre parcel from the bankrupt refinery complex to accommodate a renewable gas plant,... Read more »

Husky Oil experienced a bad fire on April 26, 2018.  It’s taken this long just to demo the damaged equipment, and full operation is expected... Read more »

There comes a point when it’s time to get a better document management system because what you have is not meeting your needs & requirements.... Read more »

This is another excellent article from Coking.com on how Management of Change (MOC) can save lives at an oil refinery. Read more about it here.

Meridian Energy group is planning on building a new 60,000 BPD refinery in Winkler County, Texas. This new refinery will process local Permian crude oil... Read more »

ExxonMobil has started construction on a new crude unit at its Beaumont, Texas refinery. This new unit will increase capacity by more than 65% to... Read more »

The US will position itself as a net energy exporter in 2020 and will remain so throughout a projection period to 2050 resulting from large... Read more »

China’s Sinopec Corp has joined a group planning to build an oil refinery in Alberta, an enterprise that would strengthen demand for the Canadian province’s... Read more »

We came across this article on a website that specializes in the Refining Community Newsletter. An interesting short article on the importance of team training... Read more »

The U.S. port district of Houston-Galveston in Texas recently began exporting more crude oil than it imported for the first time on record. Crude oil exports from... Read more »

  The Hovensa Refinery on St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands was at one time one of the largest refineries in the world. It... Read more »

The Sturgeon Refinery, a new 80,000 BPD refinery northeast of Edmonton, Alberta, just completed construction and commissioning of its 10 major units last month and will... Read more »

Image courtesy Petrotechnics AIS Software’s mission is to offer the oil, gas, and chemicals industries high-quality and intuitive process safety management solutions. UTL, the process operations... Read more »

Exxon Mobil, along with numerous other refiners across the country plan to invest billions of dollars in the United States due in part to the... Read more »

2017 showcased many international oil refinery projects with major impacts in world oil production. This report from Hydrocarbon Processing Magazine provides some details of these massive expansions... Read more »

  Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP (CPCC), a joint venture of Chevron Corp. and Phillips 66, has completed construction of a 1.5 million-ton/year ethane cracker... Read more »

According to the American Petroleum Institute, the total US petroleum product deliveries reached their highest October monthly average since 2007.  19.9 million barrels per day... Read more »

Shell, the world’s largest fuel retailer, is looking at the future of oil refining when regulations and market forces replace petroleum-powered vehicles with electric vehicles.... Read more »

Will oil and gas consumption decrease in the future as climate change legislation and electric-powered vehicles alter the balance of petrochemical consumption? This is an... Read more »

The flow of crude oil and refined products flowing across the American Midwest is changing. Over the past few years, Midwestern refiners have spent billions... Read more »

AIS Software will be attending the fall AFPM Operations & Process Technology Summit on October 2-4 at the JW Marriott Hotel in Austin, Texas. The conference... Read more »

Photo Courtesy Motiva The Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, the largest oil refinery in the US, restarted production of its 325,000 BPD VPS-5 crude distillation... Read more »

Sadly, another refinery worker has died of burns and injuries sustained from an explosion and fire at HollyFrontier’s El Dorado, Kansas refinery. The fire started... Read more »

The US Gulf Coast refiners and shippers are resuming their operations after Hurricane Harvey. Upstream and midstream are monitoring the progress to assess ramping up... Read more »

Photo courtesy of Royal Dutch Shell PLC. A fire, sparked by an explosion at a high-voltage power station at Shell’s Pernis refinery in Rotterdam, the... Read more »

Photo courtesy of ExxonMobil ExxonMobil Corp has been fined about $165,000 by US regulators for safety lapses including inadequate training and equipment maintenance over an... Read more »

The refinery capacity in the US continues to slowly increase at 2% each year. Last year the “gross input” of crude oil into American refineries... Read more »

  Photo credit: Shell Prelude, the largest floating LNG platform in the world (for now) is finally on the move. It has set sail from... Read more »

  Photo credit: Co.uk “Controlled documents” are those paper drawings or electronic files that are tightly controlled to maintain the accuracy of their contents. Each... Read more »

Photo courtesy KWQC Davenport IA A massive fire broke out at the partially flooded Pemex Salina Cruz oil refinery in southern Mexico on Wednesday, injuring nine people and forcing the... Read more »

  Tesoro Corporation announced on June 1st that it will officially change its name to Andeavor effective August 1st of this year. This move comes... Read more »

 (photo courtesy of Reuters) The chemical safety board just released its report on the 2015 explosion that occurred at the Torrance, CA, refinery. Four workers... Read more »

Integrity Operating Windows (IOW) and Design Operating Windows (DOW) are industry terms that relate to the operating limits of process equipment. These are the important... Read more »

AIS Software is getting three new pop-up banners for its trade show booth. These have been designed by Big Fresh Marketing and will make their... Read more »

This is an interesting and informative article from OilPro.com that gives some very interesting history and background on how oil is measured and why a... Read more »

We’re happy to announce that we’ll be attending and exhibiting at the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers 2017 National Occupational Safety Conference & Exhibition from May... Read more »

AIS strongly supports keeping the Chemical Safety Board. It is a necessary tool in understanding and correcting the underlying conditions that cause industrial accidents and fatalities. What the... Read more »

Prelude is the largest floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing facility in the world. This half-kilometer long vessel will be moored off the Australian coast... Read more »

  The following is an excerpt from the article “A Passion for the Profession – Alison North” from the Association of Records Managers and Administrators (ARMA)... Read more »

A new refinery is being proposed to handle the increasing production coming out of the West Texas Permian Basin. The new 50,000 BPD refinery would be built... Read more »

OK, so you have an oil refinery or a chemical processing facility, and it comes with a “user’s manual” of several thousand documents whose contents... Read more »

Why do we do it? What makes us arrive at the office day after day at 6 am and often on weekends to create the... Read more »

Refinery turnarounds and startups are the periods of highest risk to refinery workers. It’s the time when most accidents happen. A lot of work and preparation goes... Read more »

Nobody likes a spill. What goes on in the pipeline stays in the pipeline.  The best ways to prevent spills are to perform adequate inspections and maintain good operating and maintenance... Read more »

The Davis Oil Refinery is currently under development near Belfield, North Dakota by Meridian Energy Group. The 55,000 barrel per day refinery will be built... Read more »

Controlled documents are “living” entities that define products, describe processes, and depict infrastructures. They are the DNA upon which all large industrial facilities are built.... Read more »

You know, the idea of storing large volumes of industrial hydrogen in an underground cavern is pretty cool, like something Jules Verne would have dreamed... Read more »

by Rick Kaiser A controlled document is any digital or hard-copy entity which is required by a company, a standards organization, or a regulatory agency to... Read more »

Food-grade liquid carbon dioxide is now being produced commercially from waste carbon dioxide, heretofore an industrial by-product that was released into the atmosphere, at a... Read more »

Six years ago, a Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s pipeline under San Bruno California ruptured and the resulting explosion and fire killed eight people. In... Read more »

Tesoro Corporation announced today that it will acquire Western Refining at an implied current price of $6.4 billion, including the assumption of approximately $1.7 billion... Read more »

Gasoline is an important commodity, especially on the heavily-populated east coast of the US. After the deadly October 31st rupture and fire in the 1.3... Read more »

Recovery factors of 30-40% expected New discovery in the Alaskan Oil operations, and we’re happy to relay this information to our audience. “This discovery has the... Read more »

Excellent response from Colonial – minimal impact to both the environment and delivery to markets. A small gasoline leak in a segment of Colonial’s Line... Read more »

Safety first at Lyondell Basell Industries’ Houston refinery We’re glad to hear about the proactive safety-conscious decision to shut down, assess, and quickly return to... Read more »

Madison, WI based Virent has developed new technology which is able to convert sugars and other biomass derived feed-stocks into gasoline blend-stocks and aromatics. This... Read more »

An emerging trend in refinery requirements? Major companies such as ExxonMobil and Chevron Corp. have been reducing their portfolios of non-integrated chemical and production system... Read more »

No injuries reported. We’re glad to hear that no one was hurt as a 1-ton sulfur tank exploded at Tesoro’s Carson refinery. Operating at a... Read more »

Feedstock supply loss leads to leak, and then fire. Total SA’s Arthur Texas refinery faced a reformer, sulfur recovery unit, and a pressure swing absorption... Read more »

Heater tube fails as hydrogen unit was being shut down The 260 Mbpd Lake Charles Refinery in LA faced a fire around mid-day, which was... Read more »

Operations near normal Our hearts and prayers go out to the seven workers injured in a flash fire at Sunco Logistics crude oil terminal in... Read more »

Heavy oil hydrocracker structurally damaged As always, we’re relieved that no one was injured in what is a critical system fire at the Motiva plant... Read more »

The Davis refinery, being built in the Bakken Shale region, near Belfield ND, is expected to be fully operational in 2019, but will include 2... Read more »

Contract worker injured by electric shock, revived by refinery emergency personnel, taken to area hospital As always, we’re happy to note that refinery safety protocols... Read more »

Weak safety culture at Martinez, CA refinery contributed to injury incidents between 2010 and 2014 The board reviewed 15 instances where workers were sprayed with... Read more »

A part of LyondellBasell’s ongoing growth plan, this project is one of many ethylene expansion projects the company is undertaking. We’re always glad to hear of the... Read more »

Local state of emergency declared Working hand in hand with Canadian federal and provincial officials, representatives from Husky are working on cleaning up the 1,570... Read more »

Wyoming Refining Co. purchased by Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. Exciting news coming out of Wyoming as Par Pacific takes control of the Newcastle refinery, the... Read more »

Regulator proposals focus on strengthening workplace and environmental safety at oil refineries statewide. Following the August 2012 Chemical Release fire at Chevron Corp.’s Richmond, CA... Read more »

Enacted by Congress and signed into law by President Obama, this new law expands EPA authority Regulating the manufacture, importation, and processing of chemicals while... Read more »

Meridian Energy Group issued first of two critical permits to build Davis refinery in Billings County, ND The next step is for Meridian to file... Read more »

We’re happy to announce that we will be exhibiting at this year’s ARMA Live in San Antonio September 25 – 27th. Stop by booth 231... Read more »

The drop in fuel economy is good news for refiners, as drivers will have to burn more gasoline to travel the same distance. Gasoline demand... Read more »

The sequence of events that eventually led to the explosion at the refinery began on February 12, 2015, when problems with a piece of equipment... Read more »

In today’s challenging environment of plummeting revenues, rising costs, and the imperative to do more with less, I find myself increasingly concerned about the documents,... Read more »