Month: November 2020

Bloomberg China to Take Oil-Refining Crown Held by U.S. Since 19th Century (Bloomberg) -- Earlier this month, Royal Dutch Shell Plc pulled the plug on its Convent refinery in Louisiana. Unlike many oil refineries shut in recent years, Convent was far from obsolete: it’s fairly big by U.S. standards and sophisticated enough to turn a wide range of crude oils into high-value fuels. Yet Shell, the world’s third-biggest oil major, wanted to radically reduce refining capacity and couldn’t find a buyer.As Convent’s 700 workers found out they were out of a job, their counterparts on the other side of Pacific were firing up a new unit at Rongsheng Petrochemical’s giant Zhejiang complex in northeast China. It’s just one of at least four projects underway in the country, totaling 1.2 million barrel...

Bloomberg China to Take Oil-Refining Crown Held by U.S. Since 19th Century (Bloomberg) -- Earlier this month, Royal Dutch Shell Plc pulled the plug on its Convent refinery in Louisiana. Unlike many oil refineries shut in recent years, Convent was far from obsolete: it’s fairly big by U.S. standards and sophisticated enough to turn a wide range of crude oils into high-value fuels. Yet Shell, the world’s third-biggest oil major, wanted to radically reduce refining capacity and couldn’t find a buyer.As Convent’s 700 workers found out they were out of a job, their counterparts on the other side of Pacific were firing up a new unit at Rongsheng Petrochemical’s giant Zhejiang complex in northeast China. It’s just one of at least four projects underway in the country, totaling 1.2 million barrel...

A coronavirus vaccine from Oxford University and AstraZeneca is 70 percent effective, according to interim analysis from a large scale clinical trial. The announcement Monday combines data from two different dosing regimens. When the vaccine was given as a half dose and then a full dose, it had an efficacy of 90 percent. When given as two full doses, it showed 62 percent efficacy.  “These findings show that we have an effective vaccine that will save many lives,” said Andrew Pollard, chief investigator of the Oxford Vaccine Trial, in a statement. “Excitingly, we’ve found that one of our dosing regimens may be around 90 percent effective and if this dosing regime is used, more people could be vaccinated with planned vaccine supply.”  The findings indicate there were 131...

Aragonez is one of 15 family members who contracted the coronavirus after a small indoor birthday celebration earlier this month where no one wore masks. Weeks later, in an emotional video shared by the City of Arlington, the family is begging others to avoid gathering with anyone outside their immediate household. “Of course we regret getting together but we all have in mind that this could be a lesson for all of us,” Alexa Aragonez, Enriqueta’s daughter, told The Washington Post on Sunday. “One moment of carelessness has cost us a month of peace, has cost us sleep, has cost us laughs, has cost us a lot of money.” As coronavirus cases in the United States continue to rise in record numbers, the situation in Texas is dire. This weekend, the state’s National Guard deployed a 36-member te...

Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder and co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is optimistic about coronavirus vaccine development. The first two vaccine candidates likely to receive FDA authorization, one from Pfizer and one from Moderna, appear to be 95 percent effective against coronavirus. But Gates also has high hopes for vaccines that haven't yet made big headlines, too, with enthusiasm for vaccines developed by AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax. "Almost all the...