Mid January: Downstream news from Europe
Belgium
Petroplus’ Antwerp refinery is now completely offline. Shutdown procedures began on Monday 2nd January due to the lack of crude oil being supplied to the facility. When up and running, the refinery has a capacity of 107.500 bpd.
Bulgaria
Lukoil of Russia has installed meters at its refinery at the Black Sea port of Burgas. The 142 000 bpd facility was stripped of its operational licenses by the customs office for failure to install product metering. The company is now appealing the decision. The meters are needed to ensure that tax can be calculated accurately.
Germany
OMV AG is looking to sell its stake in Bayernoil Raffinerie GmbH. The company are looking to sell its share in this joint venture as part of a plan to rid itself of US$ 1.3 billion of its refining assets by 2014. This follows OMV’s announcement in September last year to sell off refining and end product projects to focus on exploration and production.
Switzerland
Petroplus have taken the Cressier refinery offline. This is also due to the freezing of credit supplies, which has lead to a halt in crude supply to the facility. The company is now carrying out maintenance on the facility.
Turkey
Turcas Petrol AS is looking for US$ 4 billion in loans to construct a new refinery in the Aliaga region on the Aegean coast. The refinery will be a joint venture with Socar of Azerbaijan. The two companies will provide the initial US$ 1 billion to begin production. The facility is expected to have a processing capacity of 200 00 bpd and be online in 2015.
UK
It has been reported that more than 1000 jobs are under threat after lenders froze borrowing related to the Coryton refinery, Canvey Island, Essex. The facility is owned by Petroplus and MEP Richard Howitt has called for the European Commission to take action to avoid the loss of jobs. BP Plc is apparently also looking to help Petroplus by providing crude oil to the facility. The 220 000 bpd refinery is currently running at half capacity and only has guaranteed supply until the end of the month.
Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/18012012/mid_january_downstream_news_from_europe345/
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