Refinery shutdowns and delays

Plans on hold

Chennai Petroleum Corp Ltd. has decided to put plans to construct a new refinery on hold. The facility was expected to have a capacity of 15 million tpy and be located in Ennore. Sadly the project plans did not receive environmental clearance. Chennai Petroleum is now looking to invest in expanding its current refinery.

Hyperion Refining has halted plans to purchase land in Union County, South Dakota. Hyperion would have constructed a refinery on the land however, due to the poor economy Hyperion has decided to hold back. However, the company is going to extend the land negotiations beyond August 31^st 2010 with the hope of constructing the refinery in the future.

Abandoned plans

Hindustan Petroleum has completely abandoned plans for the construction of a refinery and petrochemical plant in Visakhapatnam, India. Plans have been shelved as Total and LN Mittal Group, who would have been investment partners, pulled out of the project. The company’s priority is now to complete the construction of a 180 000 bpd refinery in Punjab state.

Maintenance shutdown

Tesoro Corp. has begun the shutdown of its Mandan refinery, North Dakota. The facility will be closed for a maintenance turnaround that will last approximately one month. The maintenance is part of a schedule to shut down three of the company’s seven refineries in the first half of the year.

Refinery closure

Sunergy, Inc. has shutdown its 45 000 bpd Tema refinery, Ghana. The facility has been closed due to a lack of oil supplies. The plant has been suffering with financial difficulties for several months and was closed at several points throughout 2009. At present the plant owners do not have a restart date.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/20042010/refinery_problems/