The equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane, typhoon Haiyan, aka Yolanda, barreled through the Philippines and is expected to make landfall in Vietnam Sunday. “The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System, jointly run by the United Nations and the European Commission, said nearly 16 million people, including more than 12 million from the Philippines, were at risk from Yolanda. The others were in Laos and Vietnam, which are forecast to be hit on Sunday…” [Business World Online] While the Philippines is not a major oil or gas producer, Vietnam produced 348,000 b/d of oil in 2012 and has a small but growing refining industry. Damage to infrastructure could impact regional oil and product prices.

A new Amnesty International report accuses Shell of manipulating oil spill information and documents. “The Amnesty report offers detailed analysis to back long-standing charges that oil companies blame sabotage for spills sometimes caused by corrosion and other faults in aging pipelines.” [AP via The Japan Times]

San Francisco Bay Area commits to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. That means even tougher environmental standards could be imposed on local refineries already struggling with thin profit margins. “The heavily polluting refineries could be forced to cut output or vastly improve their environmental performance at a time when they are preparing to begin processing dirty tar-sands oil from Canada.” [Grist]