Middle East and Asia: Refining and petrochemicals catchup

India

The Gujarat refinery is going to invest up to Rs 1500 crore in a new hydrodesulfurisation plant. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is seeking to spend this money the upgrade the plant to produce a higher quantity of Euro IV diesel. The upgrade is expected to take three years and will allow the plant to process 6.5 million tpy once complete.

In other news from IOC, the company is reportedly in talks with The Adani Group to build a refinery at the Mundra Port, Gujarat. The companies are apparently looking to invest Rs 30 000 crore in a 30 million tpy facility that has already been granted environment ministry approval.

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) has announced that H. Kumar has been selected to become the company’s new Managing Director. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the orders for Kumar to be instated on 7 August.

Essar Oil is going to shut a unit at its Vadinar refinery for a week of maintenance during the second half of this month. The work on the 40 000 bpd crude distillation unit will mean that production at the plant will drop for the week long stint.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd is looking to spend US$ 2.66 billion on expanding the Assam refinery. The expansion will increase production at the plant to 9 million tpy from the current processing level of 3 million tpy.

Iran

An Iranian oil official has said that Iran is working to supply more Euro 4 grade gasoline to help reduce air pollution in large cities throughout the country. Catalyst is currently being purchased for the Lavan oil refinery to aid this movement and it is hoped that the facility will produce Euro 4 by March of next year at a capacity of 3.5 million ltrs/d.

Malaysia

Petronas has awarded Sinopec Engineering of China a contract worth US$ 1.3 billion. The contract includes the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning for an oil and gas refining and petrochemical integrated project at Pengerang. The Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex currently has a processing capacity of 20 000 bpd. The refinery and integrated petrochemical project is anticipated to have a processing capacity of 300 000 million bpd and be commissioned in 2016. A storage facility is also expected to be added to the site by 2020.

Saudi Arabia

Essar Projects is going to upgrade a crude stabilisation unit at the Saudi Aramco owned Abqaiq plant. The contract includes the engineering, procurement and construction of a crude tank, replacement of crude pumps and associated civil, piping, electrical and instrumentation facilities. The work is expected to take a total of 29 months and the contract is worth US$ 54 million.

Edited from various sources by Claira Lloyd

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/11082014/asia-mid-east-refining-petrochem-11-aug/