Downstream news: USA and South America

USA

California

Phillips 66 is now restarting its Santa Maria refinery in Arroya Grande, California, after it lost power in a regional power outage.

According to Phillips 66 spokesman, Rich Johnson, the restart may take several days.

Hawaii

The buyer of Tesoro Corp.’s Kapolei refinery, Par Petroleum Corp., has estimated that it will take about US$ 27 million to carry out the maintenance necessary in order to restart the refinery.

Par Petroleum Corp. has agreed to pay the first US$ 15 million for ‘startup expenses’. Tesoro will pay the next US$ 5 million, with Par Petroleum picking up any expenses in excess of US$ 20 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

South America

Brazil

Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil’s state run oil company, and China Petroleum and Chemical Corp are in talks to build a US$ 20 billion, 300 000 bpd refinery.

Petrobras has said that the non-binding accord with Sinopec, allows both companies to study the feasibility of the project in the northeastern state of Maranhao. The talks could lead to the creation of a joint venture.

Costa Rica

The Costa Rican government has halted a US$1.3 billion refinery modernisation, largely funded by the Chinese government, due to a contractual violation.

The project was terminated when the government became aware that a company conducting a feasibility study is owned by the company paying for the renovation, China’s National Petroleum Corp.

Edited from various sources Emma McAleavey

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/26062013/downstream_news_update_usa_and_south_america/