Global downstream news catch up: 27 May

China

Rosneft and CNPC have signed a construction agreement for the Tianjin refinery and petrochemical complex in southern China. The refinery will be run as a joint venture and have a processing capacity of 16 million tpy. Rosneft will supply 9.1 million tpy of crude oil to the refinery.

Colombia

Ecopetrol has agreed to supply crude oil to a refinery which is scheduled to commence operations next year. The refinery is expected to cost US$ 1.5 billion to construct and will have a processing capacity of 40 000 bpd. The volumes of crude to be supplied by Ecopetrol are yet to be defined.

Finland

Neste Oil has announced that it will begin producing low sulfur bunker fuels for domestic ports by the end of 2014. This is due to the fact that the shipping industry is currently preparing for new emissions rules which take effect next year. The new limit on sulfur is set at 0.10%.

Hungary

INA has issued a statement following the announcement that production at the Rijeka refinery had been suspended and was going to be offline for an indefinite period of time. INA have said that this is not the case and that the refinery is monitored on a regular basis and its production, at the moment, meets the demand.

Pakistan

Member of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry and China Logistic Association have voiced that they are to invest in building a refinery in Gwadar. There is already some investment in Gwadar and China is happy to invest further, establishing cold storage, warehouses and an oil refinery.

Russia

JSC Gazprom Neft has awarded KBR a contract for project management consultancy services at the Omsk refinery. The contract is part of a major renovation project at the 286 160 bpd facility located in Western Siberia.

South Korea

South Korea has announced plans to adjust mandatory oil storage levels to help expand commercial trading of petroleum products. At the moment, oil refineries are obliged to store 45 days worth of output, which is the equivalent of 120 million bbls. The proposed regulation will mean that refiners only have to store 50 million bbls.

USA

Leifmark has been hired to create a custom project definition, the first stage of a plan for collocating an Inbicon Biomass refinery on the site of Patriot’s 110 000 gal./y grain ethanol plant in Annawan, Illinois. At the centre of the technology platform is the Inbicon biomass conversion technology, which Denmark’s DONG Energy began developing in the late 1990s and has demonstrated for over 15 000 hours at its Inbicon Biomass refinery in Kalundborg, where it typically processes 4.4 tpy of wheat straw.

Edited from various sources by Claira Lloyd

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