13th January: Downstream update
Brazil
Petrobras announced that during the first 11 months of 2013, it refined an average of 2.03 million bpd of crude oil. This amounts to approximately 97% of its processing capacity and is an 8% increase on the same period in 2012.
Canada
The Alberta government has signed off CAN$ 1 billion in provincially backed loans and other guarantees to help finance the CAN$ 8.5 billion Sturgeon refinery which is planned for the northeast of Edmonton. The cost of constructing the plant has overrun by almost CAN$ 2 billion.
India
Bharat Petroleum Corp has announced plans to shut a crude unit at its Mumbai refinery for maintenance. The unit will be offline in April – May for 15 days as part of a wider 40 day maintenance plan at the facility.
Iran
Despite an announcement from Europe saying it will relax insurance and coverage bans on Iranian crude shipments, Indian Oil Corp has deferred resuming purchases due to a failure to get reinsurance for shipments. Two other state run refineries have failed to obtain insurances and delays of three months are expected.
USA
The Delaware state appeals board is going to look at the challenge to the crude by rail operation at the Delaware City refinery. Environmental groups are fighting to be able to contest a permit change which is related to the expansion of crude transport to barges. The environmental groups involved are filing that state regulators ignored the 1971 ban on new bulk product transfer terminals in the state’s Coastal Zone when granting upgrade permissions in 2013.
Vietnam
US$ 220 million has been earmarked to expand Vietnam’s network of storage, port and distribution of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The country’s demand for LPG has been expanding by up to 8% a year in recent years so despite this investment, the country will still import approximately half of its demand. This money will be spent over the next six years.Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/13012014/13_january_downstream39/
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