Asian downstream update

China
Construction of an expansion at the PetroChina Co. owned Ningxia refinery has begun. The facility will triple in size once the work is complete and have the capacity to produce 100 000 bpd. The project is part of the Chinese government’s key project to improve fuel quality and capacity in the country as demand is ever increasing. The expansion will cost approximately US$ 1.1 billion.

India
The commissioning of the Paradip, Orissa refinery is currently under threat. This is because the Indian government has put a cap of 20 on the number of foreign visas that can be associated with each project. Indian Oil Corp. is currently debating this as it needs to enlist far more than 20 foreign experts to construct the 15 million tpy facility. The Rs 29 777 crore project is meant to be online by November 2012, however, these restrictions will cause severe delays. 

Singapore
ExxonMobil is going to shutdown units at its Singapore based Jurong Island refining and petrochemicals facility. The shutdown is part of a maintenance plan that was announced earlier this year. This is the first maintenance work to be carried out at the plant since 2007 and is part of a 3.36 million bpd maintenance shutdown this month throughout Asia.

South Korea
Samsung Engineering has been awarded a contract by Abu Dhabi Gas Development Co. The US$ 1.5 billion contract is for construction of utilities and offsite facilities at the Shah facility, UAE. Once complete, the Shah development will have the capacity to process 1 billion ft³/d of gas into fuel and sulfur.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/05052010/asian_downstream_update/