Asia: Late January downstream update

China

Kuwait Petroleum Corp. has announced that it has chosen Total SA to be a third partner in the construction of a new refinery in China. The refinery will cost US$ 9 billion. Kuwait will share part of its 50% stake in the facility with Total and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. will exclusively own the remaining 50%. The plant is scheduled to come online in 2015 with a production capacity of 300 000 bpd.

India

On Saturday 21^st January, 1 person died and 5 were injured in an accident at Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. One of the injured people was an employee of the company and the 5 others, including the deceased, were contractors. An explosion at mid morning in the second sulfur recovery unit caused the accident.

PT Pertamina have announced that they no longer plan on shutting the Balongan refinery in West Java for maintenance during 2012. Instead, the maintenance will be carried out intermittently on separate units to avoid total shutdown. The work is being done as Pertamina attempt to double their output of gasoline to 1 million kltrs. At the moment, the facility in Balongan has a processing capacity of 125 000 bpd.

Uzbekistan

To aid construct Uzbekistan’s largest petrochemical plant, the Asian Development Bank has approved a load for up to US$ 400 million, it has also provided guarantees for political risk. The facility will be owned and operated by the joint venture Uz-Kor Gas Chemical LLC, which comprises Uzbekneftegaz or Uzbekistan and a South Korean consortium made up of Honam Petrochemical Corp., Korea Gas Corp. and STX Energy. 

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/30012012/asia_late_january_downstream_update2012/