Global downstream news: 14th February 2014

USA

Utah

A fire at the Tesoro refinery left the plant without power for several hours last week. No injuries were reported.

Canada

Regina Consumers’ Cooperative Refineries Ltd. (CCRL) is denying that it was negligent in maintaining the safety of a corroded pipe that allegedly caused an explosion and fire in 2011.

The denial is in response to a statement of claim filed on 31^st July by Skyway Canada Limited, a scaffolding company that employed workers injured in the explosion. The company alleges that CCRL failed to maintain, inspect and replace the defective pipe and didn’t use an inspection plan that had sufficient number of pipe thickness monitoring locations.

Japan

TonenGeneral Sekiyu KK is considering cutting capacity to its Chiba refinery by 13%, or 23 000 bpd in order to meet government norms on improving efficiency.

The Japanese government imposed a law in 2010 requiring old refineries to either scrap inefficient crude distillation units or invest in heavy residue cracking units by the end of March 2014 in order to better compete with Asian rivals.

China

BP has dropped plans to invest in a refinery in China. The company had been considering investing in the 200 000 bpd Qinzhou plant operated by PetroChina.

BP has not commented on the decision, but the EIA has indicated that ‘growing concerns over the risks of oversupply in the Chinese fuel markets have led at east four projects to be canceled in recent months’.

Kuwait

Petrofac has won a US$ 1.7 billion contract from Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC). The project forms part of a US$ 3.7 billion joint venture with Samsung and CB&I.

The new contract includes the provision of 19 new refining units at Mina Abdulla, the revamping of existing units at this Shouaiba refinery site and the accompanying inter refinery transfer lines.

Edited from various sources by Emma McAleavey.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/14022014/downstream_news_161/