17th April: Refining news from the Americas
Brazil
Petrobras has announced that it has purchased the Pasadena, Texas refinery. The company have reportedly bought the facility to minimise returns on heavy Brazilian oil in the US market. There have however been calls for an investigation in to the purchase as it has been reported that the US$ 1.2 billion price is 20 times the true value of the 100 000 bpd facility.
Ecuador
A contract for the construction of the Refineria del Pacifico Eloy Alfaro is expected to be signed in June. The construction site is currently being prepared by Odebrecht, a Brazilian company and is now 85% complete. The refinery is a joint venture between Petroecuador and PDVSA.
Mexico
Pemex has said that its refineries will boost crude processing volumes to their highest rate in five years this year. The company's six refineries located in Mexico are expected to process 1.248 million bpd on average, at a combined capacity of 79.2%. The total refining capacity of all Pemex’s domestic plants in 1.576 million bpd.
USA
Bidding is currently underway to demolish the Old Midwest refinery near Cedar Street, in Laramie, Wyoming. The project has a budget of US$ 335 000 and so far Domino Construction’s bid has come in under budget, but only for the first two demolition phases. Two other firms have bid for the whole contract but have done so above the set budget.
Following a fuel spill into a tributary of the San Antonio River on Friday 11 April, new safety measures are now being put in place at the Calumet refinery. The spill last Friday was the second in two months and saw the plant loose 100 gal. of fuel.
This month, the Refinery Terminal Fire Co., Texas is planning on building a US$ 6.2 million, 39 221 ft2 firehouse and a 12 246 ft2 administration block. The company started in 1948 and is the largest non-profit industrial fire fighting group in the US with 170 personnel and five trucks.
It has been reported that despite smoke rising from the HollyFrontier oil refinery, Tulsa on Tuesday 15 April, no emergency calls were made to the Tulsa Fire Department. There was no fire at the facility and it was reported that safety training was taking place at the time.
Edited from various sources by Claira Lloyd
Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/17042014/17th_april_americas_oil_refining_news/
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