Refineries seek expansion investment

Further south of the accelerating hydrocarbon processing industry in India and China, Oceania has somewhat belied the Asia Pacific’s general regional trend.

The newer mega-refineries in Asia have driven two Australian facilities out of the market. Shell recently opted to cease operations at its 79 000 bpd Clyde refinery in Sydney, while in 2009 ExxonMobil decided to demolish its Port Stanvac, South Australia after it had been mothballed for six years. Uncertainty still lingers around the future of Caltex Australia’s two refineries.

Yet in New Zealand, Refining NZ has just begun a campaign to muster shareholder support for a planned NZ$ 365 million upgrade to its 96 000 bpd Marsden Point complex. The company is aiming to expand capacity to meet 65% of country’s needs, up from the current 55%, via the construction of a new Continuous Catalytic Regeneration Platformer (CCR).

The company is jointly owned by BP (23.6%); Mobil (19.2%); Z Energy (14%); and Chevron (12.7%); while shareholders account for approximately 17%. The plant has undergone several upgrades since its construction in 1964. The largest of these involved a NZ$ 1.8 billion expansion and construction of a 170 km pipeline from the refinery to Wiri.

Elsewhere in the region, Vietnam’s only refinery is also seeking investment. The 148 000 bpd Dung Quat facility requires in excess of US$ 2 billion in order to expand capacity by roughly a third to approximately 192 000 bpd.

The expansion would include a new crude processing unit to deal with heavier crude grades arriving from the Middle East or Venezuela.

JGC Corp has been hired to carry out a feasibility study on the expansion plans, as Vietnam aims to boost its output of domestically processed oil products in order to reduce reliance on fuel imports.

Written by Joe Hester

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/17042012/new_zealand_vietnam_refineries_seek_investment/