Refinery sales, closures and conversions

Sales

A stake in the Dung Quat refinery, Vietnam is going to be purchased by TNK-BP. An agreement of sale has been signed by TNK-BP and Vietnam Oil& Gas Group who own the facility.

Final bids on Chevron’s Pembroke, South Wales refinery are expected to be made by the end of 2010. The sale of the refinery is part of the restructuring plan for Chevron’s downstream sector. Also in South Wales, Murphy oil has put its Milford Haven refinery up for sale. The company expects to close transactions and the sale at the beginning of 2011.

Nigeria’s National Assembly has advised that the Nigerian National Petrochemical Corporation sell the country’s four refineries. This is due to fraud allegations.

Closures

Western refining, US, have announced that despite the complete shutdown of its Yorktown, Virginia refinery, it will consider reopening the facility if global refining margins begin to improve. The shutdown of the facility was completed on 13^th September.

Conversions

Petroplus is going to convert the Reichstett refinery in to a terminal. The 81 000 bpd facility was originally put up for sale but no offers were made.

Tamoil SA has decided to convert the Cremona refinery, Italy in to a storage depot. The facility which processes 95 000 bpd will be converted by the end of 2011.

Sunoco are now considering converting the Eagle Point, New Jersey refinery into a biofuels facility. The refinery was closed towards November 2009 due to poor refining margins.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/18112010/refinery_sales_closures_and_conversions/