Global downstream news update: 30 October 2014

Canada

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has been awarded a contract by North West Redwater Partnership for work at a Greenfield bitumen refinery project in Alberta. Jacobs is scheduled to provide construction management services for the plant in Sturgeon County, and the contract value has not been announced.

India

The Visakhapatnam plant owned by Andhra Petrochemicals was damaged by cyclone Hudhud earlier this month and taken offline for repairs. The company have now announced that they expect normal operations to resume at the facility with in a month. Production loss is currently totalled as 150 000 tpd.

Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd has said that it is aiming to double its refining margins after it completes the expansion and upgrade of the Kochi refinery. The work at the plant in Kerala will allow the facility to process high sulfur crudes by 2016. Refining margins at the plant stood at US$ 3 /bbl this year, but the company is hopeful that by the middle of next year, this will return to approximately US$ 4/bbl. The Kochi refinery, which has a processing capacity of 190 000 bpd is going to be able to process 310 000 bpd once the work is complete.

Russia

Rosneft has said that it is expecting a large advance payment on the Chinese oil delivery contract. Rosneft’s deputy company president has been reported as saying that the company anticipates a substantial sum in prepayment and that everything is proceeding in line with the contract.

Saudi Arabia

The joint venture Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Co (Yasref) refinery is expected to export its first fuel in December. This is slightly later than expected as the plant started trial runs in September of this year. It has been reported that the export shipment will be of off specification high sulfur gasoline.

USA

HollyFrontier Corp. has agreed to pay US$ 153 000 as a penalty to the US EPA. The penalty is for poor emergency management planning at the Cheyenne refinery. The EPA reportedly hopes that this agreement will bring the facility up to scratch with safety requirements and will help emergency responders as they will be aware of all types of chemicals stored at the facility.

US Virgin Islands

It has been reported that the former Hovesna oil refinery has found a buyer. Atlantic Basin Refining Inc. has apparently reached a 22 year agreement with the plant’s owners and the government. The company has been specially created to buy the plant and the contract stipulates that the buyer is required to restart and rebuild the refinery. The company is paying US$ 1.6 billion in fixed payments.

Sources: Business Standard, TASS, Billings Gazette, Reuters, Gulf Business, OGJ, Fox Business.

Edited from various sources by Claira Lloyd

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/refining/30102014/downstream-news-30-oct-14/