Valero Energy Corporation has announced the completion of its acquisition of the Meraux refinery in Louisiana from Murphy Oil USA Inc, for $325 million.

In addition to the refinery, the purchase price includes an adjacent product terminal, a 20 percent equity interest in the Collins Product Pipeline and T&M terminal, and a 3.2 percent interest in the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP).

Inventories valued separately at approximately $260 million were also purchased.

London-based engineering and project management company AMEC has been awarded the front-end engineering and design contract for development of the Cygnus field in the southern North Sea.

The £50 million contract, which was awarded by GDF SUEZ E&P UK, is a front-end engineering & design (FEED) contract, which includes the option to proceed into detailed design and procurement services.

BHP Billiton has completed its acquisition of the HWE Mining subsidiaries which provide contract mining services to its Western Australia Iron Ore operations.

The acquisition from Leighton Holdings follows a previously announced Heads of Agreement signed on 9 August 2011, relating to the mining equipment and related assets that service the Area C, Yandi and Orebody 23/25 operations which collectively account for almost 70 per cent of Western Australia Iron Ore’s total material movement.

North Atlantic Potash Inc., the Canadian subsidiary of JSC Acron, today completed the sale of eight of its potash permitted areas to Yancoal Canada Resources Co. Ltd. of China for CAD$110 million.

This sale relates to North Atlantic Potash's potash permit holdings located north of Regina, and allows the company to focus on key areas of interest within its remaining potash permits in Saskatchewan.

Westinghouse Electric Company has been awarded a contract for the supply of 12 replacement steam generators for EDF's French nuclear fleet.

Westinghouse will provide engineering design, analysis, and fabrication for its technologically advanced steam generator and will deliver the steam generators to EDF in collaboration with several industrial partners, including Valinox Nucleaire in France for the manufacture of steam generator tubes, Mangiarotti S.p.A. in Italy for the steam generator assembly, and other European forging companies.

The Port of Felixstowe, the UK's largest container port, opened a new deep water shipping terminal today.

The new terminal consists of two berths – Berths 8 & 9 – and is the first stage of a £1 billion plus inward investment programme in Hutchison’s UK ports.

Currently the Port of Felixstowe deals with over 40 per cent of the UK’s container cargo, with around £60 billion of imports and exports passing through the port each year. The expansion could add a further £20 billion to this figure.

US battery manufacturer EnerSys announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to launch a joint venture in Germany to produce large format lithium-ion battery cells.

EnerSys will have a majority interest in the joint venture in cooperation with GAIA Akkumulatorenwerke GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lithium Technology Corporation (LTC).

US-based high-tech component manufacturer Atmel is to acquire ADD Semiconductor, a privately held company based in Zaragoza, Spain that develops power line communication solutions.

Atmel Corporation is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of microcontrollers, capacitive touch solutions, advanced logic, mixed-signal, non-volatile memory and radio frequency (RF) components.

DHL Global Forwarding has established three new direct connections between Germany and the African continent.

Transit times for less than container load (LCL) shipments on the three new lanes between Bremen and Tema (Ghana), Cape Town (South Africa) and Mombasa (Kenya) will be shortened by five to six days.