Weekend catchup: global refining news

Australia

Contractors have reportedly said they have not been paid on the Port Stanvac refinery clean up. At least two court cases have now been lodged by the unpaid workers against the company, EDS Australasia; in charge of the site clean up. Liberty is claiming AU$ 763 629 from EDS in one case and Contract Resources is seeking AU$ 1.21 million.

India

A blast in the vacuum gas oil treating unit of the Mittal Hindustan Petroleum refinery resulted in a fire on Friday 20 June. The fire at the Rs 19 000 crore facility took approximately four ours to control. No casualties or deaths have been reported as a result of the fire or explosion. An investigation is going to take place to look into the cause of the explosion.

Iran

It has been reported that Iran’s Deputy Minister for Petrochemical affairs has said that the country is now willing to cooperate with foreign investors as well as domestic. The Minister also said that the National Petrochemical Company was fully behind the government’s decisions.

Construction of the Persian Gulf Star refinery is reportedly 75% complete. The first unit of the plant is expected to come online towards the end of this year. The unit was originally expected to be online in March of this year.

Iraq

At the end of last week it was reported that the Baiji refinery was under government control and ISIS forces had not taken over the facility. However, it has since been reported that troops are currently fighting for control of the plant and are apparently surrounded and outnumbered by militants and are possibly trapped inside the plant. Both ISIS and government forces are continuing to report that they are in charge of the facility. Photos have also shown that a large part of the storage facility at the refinery is on fire.

Qatar

The Qatar Petroleum Refinery has distributed summer packs to the 600 contractors working at the facility. The pacts are part of the company’s corporate social responsibility initiative. The packs contain water, sunglasses, a cap, face protection and juice, all of which is hoped will aid workers deal with the heat and sun.

UAE

The Cylingas subsidiary of the Emirates National Oil company (ENOC) has signed a contract with Pyramid Engineering to build a refinery in Fujairah. The modular plant will be developed by Ecomar Energy Solutions and Cylingas will design, fabricate, install, inspect, test, paint and commission 19 above groups tanks and the associated piping systems. The refinery is expected to have a processing capacity of 7500 bpd and storage terminal capacity of 91 000 m³.

USA

An environmental has dubbed the Paulsboro Refining Co the third worst water polluter in the state of New Jersey. The group have also demanded that the refinery do better with regards to reducing the amount of chemicals it releases each year. The refinery has responded and said it has invested US$ 650 million recently to improve environmental controls and decrease emissions.

Uzbekistan

Uzbekneftegaz National Holding Company has had its road map for financial and economic recovery approved by the Uzbek government. The plan is to aid the company is recovery of loss making enterprises and includes the Ferghana and Bukhara refineries. It has been assumed that processing capacity improvements will result in an increase of 33.5% at the Ferghana refinery and 64.7% at the Bukhara plant.

Edited from various sources by Claira Lloyd

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/23062014/21st_june_weekend_catch_up/