Global downstream news: 7 October 2014

Ecuador

The Esmeraldes refinery owned by Petroecuador has been shut down for planned maintenance. The plant will be offline for 40 days as part of the phased rehabilitation and modernisation program that is underway at the plant and has a time frame of approximately 14 months. Measures have been put in place by Petroecuador to ensure that there is a reliable domestic supply of refined products on the market.

Indonesia

Pertamina has announced plans to increase capacity at its refineries as the country seeks to lower oil product imports. The company is expected to add 500 000 bpd of oil processing capacity to its refineries, meaning total processing capacity for the company will be 1.5 million bpd.

Japan

Due to a strong typhoon hitting the country, JX Holdings has suspended the receiving of marine shipments to several plants. Despite this, the company has reported that refining operations have not been impacted. Shipments to the Kashima, Negishi and Mizushima refineries were stopped on Sunday and shipments to the Oita refinery were halted on Monday morning.

Kazakhstan

KazMunaiGas National Oil and Gas Company has agreed to import petroleum products from Azerbaijan and Russia as the country is facing a shortage of petroleum products. The company is looking to import approximately 180 000 t from Russia and 10 000 t from Azerbaijan.

Mexico

Pemex and ExxonMobil have signed an memorandum of understanding that will last three years. The MoU was in addition to a cooperation agreement to exchange academic, scientific and technical knowledge between the two companies. The MoU means that the companies will analyse exploration, drilling and refining opportunities together.

The Netherlands

Kuwait Petroleum International has said that it has cancelled its plans to invest US$ 1.4 billion in its refinery in Rotterdam. The company has said that it may well instead sell the 88 000 bpd facility as Europe’s refining sector is struggling and no longer a commercially sound sector. The company are looking into possibly closing the refinery completely or converting it in to a storage terminal. It is anticipated that KPI will find it hard to find a buyer for the plant in the current market.

Neste Oil Corp has reportedly let a contract to Neste Jacobs OY for the engineering, procurement and construction management for a bio-propane unit. The unit will be installed at the company’s renewable diesel refinery in Rotterdam. Neste will also design and implement the production processes for the unit.

Nigeria

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has reported that its refineries operated at an average of 10.46% of their combined 445 000 bpd capacity in June. The three refineries owned and operated by the company received 244 000 t of dry crude oil, condensate and slop for processing over the month.

USA

The West Bountiful City Council has recently approved amendments to plans Holly Refinery has for modernising a refinery in the area. The original plans were laid out and approved in 2009, but amendments have been made since then. The expansion means the refinery will place more emphasis on refining black waxy crude oil and increase total processing capacity to 60 000 bpd.

Edited from various sources by Claira Lloyd

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/07102014/downstream-news-roundup-7-oct-2014/