Taiwan’s Formosa advances $9.4-billion Louisiana petrochemical project

Formosa Petrochemical Corp., a member of Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics Group, is moving forward with its previously announced plan to build a $9.4-billion ethane cracking and petrochemical complex along on the west bank of the Mississippi River in St. James Parish, La. Source: News


OTC: Offshore operators trying to make projects feasible at $50/bbl oil

Operators of offshore oil and gas projects have slashed costs during the oil-price slump, but they also are working to avoid the boom-bust cycles of the past, panelists told an Apr. 30 session at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. Source: News


Watching Government: A thousand days, and counting

Political pundits love to analyze a US president’s performance when a thousand days have passed. They reason that this is enough time to evaluate his track record fairly. Source: News


SAIS researchers find gaps in unconventional oil, gas regs

Differences in terminology and oversight approaches have created marked gaps in government regulation of growing unconventional oil and gas activity in the US, a research team of four graduate students at Johns Hopkins University’s School for Advanced International Studies reported on Apr. 19. Source: News


Misplaced authority

Some policies need killing while they’re still just bad ideas. A nasty example is a proposal that the US president act under the Defense Production Act to help the coal industry—or any other energy industry. Source: News


It’s a small world after all

In November 2012, Hamed Mansoori, a corrosion engineer from National Iranian Oil Co.’s (NIOC) South Zagros Oil & Gas Production Co., submitted a pair of technical articles to Oil & Gas Journal’s former Exploration Editor Alan Petzet for review. All OGJ editors get papers from every conceivable direction, often on topics not our own, and […]


Marathon Petroleum, Andeavor plan merger

Marathon Petroleum Corp. has entered a definitive agreement to acquire US independent Andeavor, formerly Tesoro Corp., in a merger that would create the largest US refiner by capacity and one of the top five largest refiners globally.  Source: News