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Refinery news roundup: News emerge on starting works in Asia

In the Asia-Pacific region, fourth quarter refinery maintenance has largely been completed and news is emerging on 2019 turnarounds as well as expansions and launches of new plants.

NEW AND REVISED ENTRIES
— Thai refiner Thaioil plans to shut its No. 3 crude distillation unit and major secondary units for 30-45 days of scheduled maintenance from the middle of June, the company said in a statement to the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Thaioil will be idling its 180,000 b/d CDU 3 from mid-June for 30 days of maintenance. The company expects annual refinery utilization to fall to around 103% of total refining capacity of 275,000 b/d due to the turnaround, the company said. The refiner also plans to shut its CCR 1 and No. 2 hydrocracker from mid-June. The CCR will be shut for 30 days and the hydrocracker for around 36 days. Thai Paraxylene Company Limited will be shutting its aromatics production units from mid-June for 45 days of maintenance, resulting in a reduced production rate of 84%, Thaioil said. The aromatics complex is integrated with the refinery. The units will return to normal operations in the third quarter, Thaioil said, adding that other units will be operating normally during the turnaround period. Production of gasoline and other refined products will fall during the turnaround period, but “the company has prepared various measures and arrangements in order to support the normal business operation and to serve oil demand in the country,” Thaioil said.

— India’s Reliance Industries Ltd will shut two units at its Jamnagar refinery complex in Gujarat for a month from mid January for routine maintenance, company officials. The two units are part of Reliance’s domestic-focused refinery at the complex. The other crude distillation and secondary processing units were expected to operate normally. Reliance runs two refineries at the Jamnagar complex — a 33 million mt/year (660,000 b/d) plant focused on the domestic market and a 35.2 million mt/year refinery which caters for exports. — India’s state-owned BPCL plans to restart the 6,000 mt/day hydrocracker unit at its Mumbai refinery in mid-January, a company source. “We have already started preparation work to restart,” the source said. A fire broke out on August 8 last year at the compressor shed of the hydrocracker, S&P Global Platts reported previously. The fire was brought under control within two hours. Units other than the hydrocracker at the refinery are running normally.

— Indian state-run Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd’s refinery at Kochi has completed a maintenance shutdown at its 210,000 b/d crude distillation unit along with some of its new secondary units, company officials said. The planned shutdown was mandatory after new capacity additions. In 2017, Kochi added 120,000 b/d of new processing capacity to the existing CDU capacity of 90,000 b/d, raising its overall distillation capacity to 310,000 b/d.

— Nayara Energy is ramping up refining process at Vadinar refinery on the west coast after on-time completion of a month-long maintenance shutdown in December, company officials said. Nayara closed the refinery during the third week of November for a month for planned maintenance, inspection, and upgrade of various process units. “The ramp-up of the refinery is in the process and as per schedule,” said in early January C Manoharan, director and head of the refinery.

EXISTING ENTRIES
— The 30,000 b/d No. 2 diesel hydrodesulfurizer at the 200,000 b/d refinery at Taiwan’s Taoyuan remains offline after repair works and the targeted restart date have been pushed to the fourth quarter of 2018, following an explosion in 2018 that damaged the unit, according to market sources. — State-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. plans a short shutdown at its Mumbai refinery for the maintenance of its CDU during the January-March quarter of 2019. The shutdown for 7-10 days will see the interlinking process at the around 4 million mt/year capacity crude unit carried out.

— PetroChina has delayed the start-up of its new 5 million mt/year CDU at its Huabei Petrochemical plant due to oversupply of oil products in central and northern China, market sources said. The company had originally planned to start trial runs in October. However, in late November Huabei Petrochemical was still making preparations to start up the CDU, according to a newsletter released on its social media site WeChat. — Vietnam’s Nghi Son refinery is expected to run at an average operating rate of below 80% of capacity in 2019 as it plans to run two months of scheduled maintenance over spring and summer 2019, Idemitsu Kosan’s Executive Vice President and Representative Director Takashi Matsushita said. Matsushita said all the units at the 200,000 b/d Nghi Son refinery will be shut during the scheduled maintenance.

— Japan’s JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy plans to shut its 30,000 b/d fluid catalytic cracker at Marifu from middle of February 2019 for an annual maintenance, a company source said. The FCC is due to be shut until the middle of March, the source said.

— Japan’s JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy plans to shut the 46,000 b/d fluid catalytic cracker at Sakai from the end of May to mid-July 2019 for annual maintenance, a company source said. The FCC is able to produce 105,000 mt/year of propylene.

FUTURE EXISTING ENTRIES
— Japan’s JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy plans to shut its 46,000 b/d fluid catalytic cracker at Mizushima-A from the end of September to the end of November 2019 for annual maintenance, a company source said. The FCC is able to produce 100,000 mt/year of propylene.

— Thai refiner PTT Global Chemical plans to conduct scheduled maintenance across its entire refinery at Map Ta Phut over October to November 2019, PTTGC said. The turnaround is expected to last 54 days. The start date of the maintenance has not been fixed. The last turnaround was over May to July 2016.

— Japan’s JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy will suspend production of petrochemicals and oil products at the Muroran plant in Hokkaido March 31, 2019, and turn the facility into a refined products terminal from April.

— Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd plans maintenance at its Vizag refinery for secondary units as well as the three crude distillation units for three-four weeks in July-September 2019.

— HPCL plans to shut its Mumbai refinery for four weeks in Q1 2020 to revamp the motor spirit block.

— Vietnam’s Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical expects production at Dunq Quat to fall to 5.57 million mt in 2020 due to planned maintenance of around two months. Production is expected to be about 5.67 million mt in 2021 because BSR plans to shut the refinery for two months to connect the facility with an expansion project.

UPGRADES
EXISTING ENTRIES
— State-owned China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec, has started construction of an ethylene and refining expansion project at its 9.2 million mt/year (184,000 b/d) Hainan refinery in southern Hainan province, the company said on its website. Some refining units, such as a 5 million mt/year CDU, that were originally included in the expansion project are not on the latest construction list. “Our expansion project will mainly focus on the petrochemical side …the refining part will not be included this time,” a refinery source said. — State-owned China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec’s Zhenhai refinery in Ningbo, eastern Zhejiang province has issued four tenders for pre-construction works of its 1.2 million mt/year ethylene expansion project, according to tenders posted on Sinopec’s ebidding platform. The 1.2 million mt/year ethylene complex is part of Zhenhai refinery’s expansion project. The project also includes 15 million mt/year of refining capacity. Sinopec Zhenhai Refining and Chemical currently operates the country’s largest 23 million mt/year refinery and a 1 million mt/year ethylene complex. Once the expansion project is completed, its crude refining capacity will be raised to 38 million mt/year and ethylene production capacity will be lifted to 2.2 million mt/year.

— Reliance Industries Ltd. has sought clearance to raise the capacity of its export-oriented refinery at Jamnagar by 16.5% to 41 million mt, Indian oil ministry officials said. Reliance runs the world’s largest refinery complex at Jamnagar on the west coast. The company has two refineries at Jamnagar — one processes for exports, while the other caters to the domestic market. The capacity of RIL’s export-oriented refinery stands at 35.2 million mt/year (around 707,000 b/d). The company increased capacity at the export-oriented refinery to the current capacity by the end of the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017, from its earlier capacity of 27 million mt/year. The domestic-focused refinery has a capacity of 33 million mt/year. Total refining capacity at the Jamnagar complex stood at 68.2 million mt/year (1.36 million b/d) in 2017-18, making it the world’s biggest refinery complex. By 2030, RIL aims to raise its total refining capacity at Jamnagar to 98.2 million mt/year.

— State-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd plans to revamp the motor spirit block at Mumbai for 35-45 days in April-June of 2019. The revamp aims at streamlining production process at naphtha hydrotreater, catalytic reformer and isomerization unit on the west coast refinery before the introduction of Bharat Stage VI fuels from April 2020. The revamp plan is expected to improve existing facilities, including the motor spirit block, by 20-30% of capacities. Earlier, the revamp was scheduled for the January-March quarter of 2020.

— South Korea’s Hyundai Oilbank plans to expand its residue desulfurization unit’s capacity from the current 100,000 b/d to 130,000 b/d in May 2020. The expansion is in line with increasing demand for lower sulfur oil products. Hyundai Oilbank also is set to complete works to expand its CDUs, increasing its refining capacity to 650,000 b/d from 560,000 b/d. Once the works are complete, the No. 1 CDU with a capacity of 120,000 b/d will be expanded to 160,000 b/d, while the No. 2 CDU with 310,000 b/d will get expanded to 360,000 b/d, according to the official. — Nayara Energy is seeking the renewal of environmental approval to double capacity at its Vadinar refinery as the previous approval had been given to Essar Oil, company officials said. Nayara Energy is an integrated downstream oil company that operates India’s second-largest single-site refiner at Vadinar, Gujarat. Last year, Russia’s Rosneft, as part of a consortium, acquired Essar Oil in a $13 billion deal. Essar Oil was renamed Nayara Energy after the acquisition by the consortium. It had planned to double the refining capacity at Vadinar to 40 million mt/year. Officials said the decision to double capacity would ultimately depend on market conditions even after the renewal of the environmental approval.

— Petron plans to expand and upgrade its Limay, Bataan refinery, increasing its capacity by 55% to produce 75,000 b/d of refined products and 1 million mt/year of aromatics, Honeywell said in a statement. There was no timeline for when the expansion will take place. The refinery’s capacity will be increased 100,000 b/d of condensates and light crude oils to produce aromatics and automotive fuels, Honeywell said. The Bataan refinery currently has a capacity of 180,000 b/d. According to previous information, Petron Corp. has been reviewing plans to expand the capacity of its Bataan refinery. Work on the expansion was expected to begin in 2018 and finish by 2019.

— An expansion plan is underway to increase the production capacity of Thailand’s Bangchak Petroleum refinery to 140,000 b/d by 2020, from 120,000 b/d currently, a company spokeswoman said. After the expansion, the refinery would have more flexibility in its production of diesel and gasoline production while the production of fuel oil is expected to be reduced.

— South Korea’s SK Innovation will build a 40,000 b/d heavy upgrader at Ulsan by 2020, which will produce 34,000 b/d of 0.5% sulfur fuel oil and 6,000 b/d of gasoil.

— HPCL’s $3.2 billion project to expand Vizag’s 8.3 million mt/year capacity to 15 million mt/year is scheduled to be completed by March 2020.

— State-owned Indian Oil Corp. has signed up energy technology and infrastructure solutions provider CB&I for a residue upgrading unit at its Mathura refinery in north India.

— IOC is exploring an option to build a petroleum coke gasification plant at its Paradip refinery on India’s east coast. IOC’s $2.3 billion expansion project for the refinery to raise its overall capacity to 18 million mt/year (360,000 b/d) by 2020 from 13.7 million mt/year is on schedule.

— Indian Oil Corp. plans to raise the capacity of its Panipat refinery to 25 million mt/year to meet growing demand for oil products. The refinery’s capacity is 15 million mt/year.

— Indian Oil Corp. plans to shut the vacuum gas oil hydrotreating unit at its refinery at Vadodara in January 2019 for 50 days to raise its capacity to 2.2 million mt/year, up 4.8% from the current capacity. It plans to hike the capacity of its continuous catalytic reformer at the same time to 780,000 mt/year, up 30% from the current capacity. IOC also plans to shut the diesel hydro-desulfurization unit for 48 days from May 15, during which period its capacity will be raised 24% to 2.2 million mt/year. IOC has a $2.3 billion expansion project in place for the Gujarat refinery to raise its overall capacity to 18 million mt/year by 2020, which will make it the state-owned company’s biggest facility.

— The Philippines’ Petron Corp. has been considering a plan to more than double capacity at its 88,000 b/d Port Dickson refinery in Malaysia by 2020 to 178,000 b/d.

— Japan’s Cosmo Energy Holdings plans to raise the capacity of the coker unit at its Sakai refinery to 31,000 b/d during a scheduled maintenance in 2019 as part of its response to the International Maritime Organization’s 2020 low sulfur mandate.

— Company officials said IOC’s $2.3 billion expansion project for the Gujarat refinery to raise its overall capacity to 18 million mt/year (361,000 b/d) by 2020 from the current capacity of 13.7 million mt/year was on schedule.

LAUNCHES
NEW AND REVISED ENTRIES
— China’s Zhejiang Petrochemical has planned to start trial operations this February on its crude distillation unit and vacuum distillation unit at the phase I project, a source close to the company said. The company had previously planned to start runs for the phase I project, with a 400,000 b/d refining capacity, in December 2018. Zhejiang Petrochemical is building the 800,000 b/d integrated refinery in a free-trade zone in China’s eastern Zhejiang province. Zhejiang Petrochemical, established in 2015, is a joint venture between textile companies Rongsheng Holding (51%) and Tongkun Group (20%) as well as chemical company Juhua Group (20%). Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Aramco on October 18, 2018, said it was taking a 9% stake in the refinery, with a source close to the project told Platts that Aramco had agreed to supply around 5 million mt (36.65 million barrels) of crude to the plant in 2019.

— The new Rapid refinery and petrochemicals joint venture between Petronas and Saudi Aramco in southern Malaysia is on track “to be ready for start-up” in the first quarter, Pengerang Refining and Petrochemical said in January. In September it said that has has received its first crude cargo, marking its transition into commissioning phase for start-up. Known as PRefChem, the refinery is part of the Pengerang Integrated Complex in the Malaysian state of Johor.

EXISTING ENTRIES
— State-owned Indian Oil Corp is hopeful of Iranian investment in subsidiary Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited’s proposal to set up a new 180,000 b/d refinery at Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu state, company officials said. “They have said they want to participate and I think they should be able to invest,” IOC chairman Sanjiv Singh told reporters. IOC holds a 51.9% share in CPCL, while Iran’s NIOC holds 15.4% through its Swiss subsidiary Naftiran Intertrade. IOC’s board approved CPCL’s initial proposal to set up the refinery at Nagapattinam in September 2017. At present, CPCL operates two refineries with a combined capacity of 11.5 million mt/year (230,000 b/d) in Tamil Nadu.

— Construction work of India’s 60 million mt/year mega-refinery on the west coast will start from 2020 after the process of land acquisition is complete, the leading company official said. “Land for the project should be available by the end of next year,” said B Ashok, CEO of Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd, or RRPCL. The project, costing an estimated $45 billion, will be spread around a projected 15,000 acres at Babulwadi village of Ratnagiri district in western Maharashtra state. The refinery when commissioned in 2025 will have a processing capacity of 1.2 million b/d and produce around 18 million mt/year of petrochemicals products. — The Chinese petrochemical producer Shenghong Group started construction on its greenfield 16 million mt/year (320,000 b/d) refining and petrochemical complex in Lianyungang, eastern Jiangsu province, the company said on its official website. “The project is slated for completion in 2021,” Shenghong noted. The project will include a 16 million mt/year refinery, a 1.1 million mt/year ethylene plant, a 2.8 million mt/year paraxylene plant, a 300,000 dwt crude receiving dock, 3.5 million cubic meters of storage tanks and some auxiliary facilities, information posted on the company’s official website showed. Shenghong’s refinery will only have one crude distillation unit with a processing capacity of 16 million mt/year, which will become the single largest distillation unit in China, the company said.

— China’s greenfield Hengli Refining and Chemical Co. in Dalian, northeastern Liaoning province, has started trial runs at its 400,000 b/d newly built refinery, the Shanghai-listed company said on its official WeChat network platform. Crude oil was fed into the refinery’s No. 1 CDU and the unit started running in mid-December 2018. Meanwhile, Hengli is likely to start marketing its petrochemical and oil products in the first half of 2019.

— PetroChina officially started construction work at its greenfield 20 million mt/year Guangdong Petrochemical refinery in the southern Guangdong province on December 5, 2018. Trial operations at the refining complex are expected to start in October 2021, while trial operation at the petrochemical units will begin two months later, a company statement said. The construction work includes setting up 41 units, including a 20 million mt/year refining complex, a 1.2 million mt/year naphtha cracker, and a 2.6 million mt/year aromatics plant.

— China’s coal chemical producer Xuyang Group has announced plans to build a greenfield 15 million mt/year refining and petrochemical complex in Tangshang in central Hebei province, that is slated for completion in three years. However, there is still no timetable when the construction will begin, as the company needs the approval from the provincial government.

— Sinopec has started construction works at its greenfield 10 million mt/year (200,000 b/d) Zhongke (Guangdong) Refining & Chemical complex, also known as Zhanjiang refinery. Sinopec had targeted completing construction of the entire complex by October 2019.

— Mongolia has launched construction of its first refinery, which will be financed by the Indian government, according to a media report. The refinery, which is planned to have a processing capacity of 1.5 million mt/year and would be Mongolia’s first, is due for completion in 2022.

— A new HPCL project in Barmer, India, is due for completion by March 2023.

— India’s big refinery project in Maharashtra, being developed by state-owned IOC, HPCL and BPCL, will start up around 2022-23.

— Indonesia’s Pertamina has signed a joint venture agreement with Russia’s Rosneft to build and operate a proposed integrated 300,000 b/d greenfield refinery and petrochemical facility in Tuban, East Java, targeting completion in 2024.
Source: Platts

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