June 29, 2012:

Byco Petroleum Pakistan Ltd. (BYCO), the Karachi-based refiner that posted three years of losses, expects to return to profit next year as new plants start. Byco will be profitable from January in the six months ending June 30, 2013, Chief Executive Officer Amir Abbassciy said in an interview. The company plans to begin production from a new oil processing plant that will be the country’s biggest refinery by August. It will spend $250 million building its first petrochemical plant. Pakistan’s petroleum producers are seeking to expand as economic growth boosts fuel demand. Byco’s plan would see it transformed from the nation’s smallest refiner into one of the largest producers, helping to boost earnings as it adds products including benzene, toluene and xylene, reducing imports. “Byco is heading for the next big thing in the refinery business in Pakistan and they are now well placed to take advantage,” said Saad Khan, a fund manager at Askari Investment Management Ltd. in Karachi, which oversees 17 billion rupees ($179 million) in stocks and bonds. “The company will be able to gain market share with the biggest refinery and petroleum product facility in the country.”

Byco’s new refinery, manufactured in Britain and assembled in Pakistan, will be able to process 120,000 barrels a day and be profitable from its first year of commercial operation, Abbassciy said in Karachi yesterday. Pak-Arab Refinery Co., jointly owned by the governments of Pakistan and Abu Dhabi, is currently the country’s biggest refinery, with a production capacity of 100,000 barrels a day, according to its website. Pakistan, South Asia’s biggest economy after India, is forecast to expand 4.3 percent in the year starting July 1, according to government projections. Byco, which started commercial production in 2004, has a 35,000-barrel-a-day refinery at Mouza Kund in the western province of Baluchistan.

The company’s net loss narrowed to 2.3 billion rupees last fiscal year from 3.2 billion rupees a year earlier. Sales fell to 38.9 billion rupees from 41.1 billion rupees. The shares have gained 31 percent this year in Karachi, compared with a 24 percent gain in the KSE index. Abraaj Capital Ltd., a Dubai-based private equity firm, owns a 40 percent stake in Byco.

By Bloomberg

June 29, 2012:

Moscow refinery, controlled by Gazprom Neft, halted gasoline making cat cracker after a failure on Thursday, a source at the company told Reuters. A Gazprom Neft spokeswoman denied the information. "The unit is working normally," she said. The source told Reuters that the refinery will reduce refinery runs in July due to the breakdown of the cracker with annual capacity of 2 million tonnes. "It is expected that maintenance works will take 15 days," the source said.

By Reuters

June 29, 2012:

HUNDREDS of workers at Coryton will be made redundant by the end of July after the oil refinery’s closure was officially confirmed. The news that workers feared came on Tuesday when administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said the site’s sale had been agreed. The refinery will become an import terminal, jointly run by Royal Vopak, Greenergy and Shell UK Ltd. Administrators said the change of use was due to ‘insufficient interest from the oil industry and financial investors in acquiring the business as an operational refinery’. Refining at the plant stopped earlier this month. PwC spokeswoman Elizabeth Faulkner said the site would be running on a ‘skeleton staff’ from August. She said staff who escaped redundancy would be involved in a ‘make safe programme’. Administrators are currently removing all crude oil and refined products from the site. PricewaterhouseCoopers was unable to confirm whether workers might receive full pensions. The union Unite said concerns over pensions was ‘deeply worrying’. Spokesman Alex Flynn said: “We would fight any attempt or move which would see workers lose out on their pensions.

“We will resist any attempt to rob people of their pension.” One hundred and eighty staff were due to go yesterday with those remaining gone by September. Co-administrator Steven Pearson said: “Ultimately, the Administrators have a legal responsibility to achieve the best price possible for the assets and we have been able to obtain the highest price by selling the site for an alternative use. “We recognise that the closure results in the redundancy of the majority of the employees at Coryton and we intend to work with the local agencies and authorities to provide assistance during this difficult time.” A job fair was held at Coryton yesterday morning (Tuesday) to help workers look for new employment. The sale would be completed after the safe and successful closure of the refinery. The process is set to take several months. Beyond the summer, a ‘small number’ of employees and contractors will remain on-site to provide security. The majority of workers will be gone by August.

By YellowAdvertiser

June 29, 2012:

Columbia Pacific Bio-Refinery officials overcame concerns about the plant's ability to produce viable ethanol, but now find themselves caught in a declining market and have yet to start production. CLATSKANIE, Ore. — Columbia Pacific Bio-Refinery officials overcame concerns about the plant's ability to produce viable ethanol, but now find themselves caught in a declining market and have yet to start production.  "Most plants are at best breaking even or losing money," said Dan Luckett, general manager of the plant. "(National) analysts believe the fourth quarter will turn out well. We're hoping to start up around October." Columbia Pacific officials planned to begin producing ethanol by February. The decision to delay production led to the layoffs of almost 50 of the company's 70 employees in May. Luckett said the plant will recall most of the employees once it becomes operational later this year. The ethanol market has fallen on hard times as prices for corn, the main raw material used in production, are high, while the price of ethanol has plummeted. The expiration of a 30-year-old federal ethanol tax credit last year has also had a negative impact on the market.

"We figured the storm would last 6 to 12 weeks," Luckett said. "We're now looking at six months." Columbia Pacific's current priority is maintaining its facility while making minor upgrades. JH Kelly, a Longview contractor, built the $200 million plant and purchased it out of bankruptcy, investing $20 million to correct issues that arose during the six months it operated in 2008 and 2009 under the name Cascade Grain. At peak production levels, the plant can produce 120 million gallons of ethanol a year. JH Kelly intends to prove the plant profitable before trying to sell it, Luckett said. "They look to at some point to divest themselves from this," he said. "(JH Kelly) looked at it as an investment and they looked to, at some point, harvest that investment." Luckett added that Chevron has reviewed the 44-acre facility along the Columbia River since its reopening and has the company listed as an approved ethanol manufacturer. The plant is designed to produce and export ethanol to be blended into gasoline. Federal law requires a  certain amount of renewable fuels, such as ethanol, be mixed into gasoline. Despite the rocky beginnings, Luckett said the plant will be ready to begin production as soon as soon as the market turns, saying it's better to sit on the sideline and lose money than operate at a deficit.

"We're at the front or the middle of the pack," Luckett said. "At some point the market will correct itself and there will be an opportunity for us."

By The Seattle Times

June 29, 2012:

Oil trader Vitol said on Friday its new joint venture Varo has completed the purchase of the Cressier refinery in Switzerland from Petroplus' administrators and will restart it in the second half of July. Varo Energy Holding - a joint venture with the co-founder of Petroplus Marcel Van Poecke's Atlas Invest - agreed to buy the 68,000-barrel-per-day plant in May. "Varo Energy Holding SA plans to restart the refinery and continue refining and marketing operations in the second half of July," Vitol said in a statement. Swiss-based Petroplus filed for insolvency in January after it defaulted on $1.75 billion of debt.

By Reuters