-Refiners’ profits will be $22 billion per year lower by 2025 if the U.S. removes its ban on crude oil exports, according to the Energy Information Administration. Via Bloomberg, the EIA’s estimate assumes that refinery margins would grow as the spread between West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude widens under current export restrictions. Congress is expected to take up legislation in the coming weeks that would lift the ban.
-HollyFrontier announced $325 million in spending between 2015 and 2018 to expand and modernize its U.S. refineries. Via the Oil & Gas Journal, HollyFrontier is evaluating a debottlenecking project at its El Dorado, Kansas, refinery and an FCC modernization project at its Tulsa, Oklahoma, refineries, among other projects.
-Four workers were injured in a hydrogen line explosion at Renewable Energy Group’s Geismar, Louisiana, plant on Thursday. All four workers were brought to the burn unit at a local hospital. One has been discharged, while another remains in critical condition. Two workers were injured in a fire at the Geismar plant in April.
-Targa Resources Partners is restarting three trains at its Cedar Bayou fractionator in Mont Belvieu, Texas, following unplanned maintenance, Platts reports. The three trains, which have a combined capacity of 250,000 barrels per day, were idled last Wednesday.
-A 17-mile stretch of the Mississippi River in Kentucky was temporarily closed last week after a towboat collision spilled more than 120,000 gallons of oil. Via the Associated Press, a cargo tank ruptured aboard an Inland Marine Towing barge that was carrying approximately 1 million gallons of oil between six tanks. No injuries were reported.
