February 6, 2020:

The Environmental Protection Agency has been asked to investigate the Marathon Refinery in Detroit. A request for the agency to step in comes from the U.S. House Subcommittee on Environment after a chemical release at the plant in September 2019. That release was a vapor leak that sent two workers to the hospital and closed roads around the refinery. According to Marathon the oil vapor cloud did not pose a danger to the public. “I think it’s really important fro folks to know can’t allow corporate polluters to be responsible for the information. We have to allow the federal and state government to do the testing themselves,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib said.

Marathon released the following response:

"Marathon Petroleum is in receipt of the letter from the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform and is in the process of reviewing the request. "In September, when the incident occurred, the Detroit refinery immediately sounded the alarm and timely notified local, state and federal emergency response groups. During the incident, the Detroit refinery deployed air monitoring resources. Extensive air monitoring was conducted and readings indicated that there were no unsafe air quality levels. Additionally, residents who signed-up for refinery alerts were notified. The refinery continues to work in coordination with emergency responders to improve its response times. "Marathon provided full, detailed information to the U.S. EPA and the U.S. Chemical Safety Board shortly following this incident. As part of our efforts to be transparent with our neighbors, refinery leadership reviewed the incident with the Local Emergency Planning Committee and the refinery’s Citizens Advisory Panel. In addition, when Representative Tlaib toured the plant on November 7, we reviewed the incident, our response and our plans to improve our response time with her.“Marathon Petroleum welcomes any and all discussion about our operation at the Detroit Refinery. We regret this incident occurred and we apologize to the community for any inconvenience.”

By WDIV ClickOnDetroit

February 6, 2020:

Royal Dutch Shell said on Thursday it is planning a major maintenance turnaround at its Pernis oil refinery in the Netherlands starting on May 4, Reuters reported. A video posted on the company’s Dutch website said the major maintenance will take place in May and June and involve cleaning towers and heat exchangers as well as replacing others. The major maintenance means Shell will not have to do maintenance of the same scale for another 3 to 6 years at the refinery, which is Europe’s largest with a capacity to process 404,000 barrels per day of crude.

By www.bicmagazine.com/

February 6, 2020:

The Angolan Ministry of Mineral Resources and Petroleum has announced the list of shortlisted candidates for the construction of the Soyo refinery. Out of 31 submissions, the ministry selected nine companies, many of them relatively unknown or part of consortiums created specifically for this bid. The list includes SDRC, the Jiangsu Sinochem Construction Co, the Quanten Consortium, a joint proposal submitted by CME, AIDA and VSF, the Tobaka Investment Group, Atis Nebest-Angola, Satarem, Gemcorp Capital and finally China Pipeline Petroleum Engineering Company. According to the ministry, with the exception of SDRC, which submitted a proposal for a 120 thousand barrel per day refinery, all other applicants submitted a project that would accommodate a processing capacity of 100 000 barrels per day, following the tender’s request.

The final winner of this multi-billion dollar project, which is a central part of the government’s grand plan to revamp the oil industry from upstream to downstream and make Angola self-sufficient in fuel production, will be announced on the 31st of March.

By africaoilandpower.com

Feburary 4, 2020:

This divestment aligns with Shell’s strategy to reshape refining efforts towards a smaller, smarter refining portfolio focused on further integration with Shell Trading hubs, chemicals and marketing. Equilon Enterprises LLC, doing business as Shell Oil Products US (Shell), a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, has formally closed on the sale of Shell’s Martinez Refinery in California. The refinery was sold to PBF Holding Company LLC (PBF), a subsidiary of PBF Energy Inc., in exchange for $1.2 billion, which includes the refinery and inventory. The deal also includes crude oil supply and product offtake agreements and other adjustments. Shell is very proud of the relationship it has built and maintained with the city and people of Martinez, Calif., over the many years it has operated side by side with the Martinez community making several notable achievements on safety, reliability, performance and community involvement. As Shell turns over ownership of the Martinez Refinery to PBF, the company offers many thanks to the city and community of Martinez, Calif., for all they have done to support and partner with Shell and its employees over the last 100 years. The transaction covered the sale of Shell’s Martinez Refinery and adjacent truck rack and terminal in California. Shell’s associated branded fuel businesses, Aviation terminal, and Catalysts business in the area were not part of this transaction. All regulatory requirements were met prior to the closing of this divestment.

As part of the sale, Shell and PBF entered into crude supply and product offtake agreements to continue to supply Shell branded businesses ensuring that Shell customers will continue to have access to quality Shell branded fuels.  Local employees providing dedicated support to Shell’s Martinez Refinery were all offered employment with PBF. PBF Energy and Shell have agreed to jointly move forward with reviewing the feasibility of building a proposed renewable diesel project which would repurpose existing idled equipment at the Martinez refinery to create a renewable fuels production facility. The detailed feasibility review and planning for this project is expected to continue after deal closing.  Shell will maintain a significant presence in California with continued investments in its Upstream and New Energies business. This divestment aligns with Shell’s strategy to reshape refining efforts towards a smaller, smarter refining portfolio focused on further integration with Shell Trading hubs, chemicals and marketing. By 2025, Shell expects to have interests in a smaller, core set of refineries. A key advantage of these core sites will come from further integration with Shell trading hubs, and from producing more chemicals and other products resilient in a lower-carbon future, such as bitumen and base oils. Its focus is value rather than volume. The company will invest in its core refineries to enable them to deliver resilient returns.

By cstoredecisions.com

February 1, 2020:

A number of refineries in China are planning works in H1. The higher run rates at Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) and state-owned Sinopec will likely lift total crude throughput at China’s major state-owned refineries and independent integrated mega refineries in January 2020, from December 2019, a monthly survey by S&P Global Platts showed. The 20 million mt/year Hengli has lifted the run rates to around 110% in January from around 100% last month. The 20 million mt/year Zhejiang Petroleum and Chemical has been running relatively stable at around 100% of capacity this month after starting its No.1 CDU in December 2019. Meanwhile, Japanese refiner Fuji Oil expects to have near 100% crude runs in fiscal 2020-21 (April-March) as it does not plan to have any scheduled maintenance at its sole 143,000 b/d Sodegaura refinery in Tokyo Bay, a company spokesman said.

NEW AND REVISED ENTRIES

JAPAN

–Japan’s JXTG Nippon Oil and Energy Corp Monday shut the sole 120,000 b/d crude distillation unit at its Marifu refinery in western Japan for scheduled maintenance on January 20, a company official said. The turnaround will last until late March, the official said.

–Idemitsu Kosan said in late January it remained unclear when refining units at the Keihin refinery in Tokyo Bay, which was hit by fire in late December, will be able to restart. A fire started on December 24 near the 27,000 b/d coker at the refinery, which is operated by Toa Oil, part of the Idemitsu Kosan group, a company spokesman said. The coker and other related units were immediately shut down and subsequently all other units including the sole crude distillation unit were closed over December 25-27, according to the spokesman.

CHINA

–PetroChina’s Guangxi Petrochemical in southern Guangxi province, will shut for maintenance from February 9, for about 50 days.

–Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical will shut a 3 million mt/year CDU for maintenance over mid-February till Mid-April.

–Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical will shut its 3.5 million mt/year CDU and 3.3 million mt/year gasoil hydrogenation unit for maintenance over mid-March to early April.

–Sinopec Zhenhai Petrochemical will shut its 8 million mt/year CDU and 1.8 million mt/year FCC over mid-March to early May for maintenance.

–Sinopec Beihai Refining and Petrochemical will shut the entire refinery for maintenance over mid-March till mid-May.

–PetroChina’s Dalian Petrochemical in northeastern Liaoning province will shut for an overall maintenance over March 25-May 25, for around two months.

–Sinopec’s Yanshan Petrochemical will shut its 3 million mt/year CDU and 2 million mt/year FCC for maintenance over late March to early May.

EXISTING ENTRIES

JAPAN

–Japan’s largest refiner JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy has decided to terminate its refining operations at the 115,000 b/d Osaka refinery in western Japan and turn the facility into an asphalt-fueled power plant in October 2020, it said.

UPGRADES

EXISTING ENTRIES

–Sinopec’s 21 million mt/year Jinling Petrochemical refinery in eastern China will build a new 600,000 mt/year vacuum distillation unit, and reconfigure its No.3 gasoline hydrotreater to a 360,000 mt/year hydrotreater to produce RMG 380 CST bunker fuel oil with sulfur content no higher than 0.5%.

–Sinopec’s 6 million mt/year Jingmen Petrochemical in central Hubei province planned to complete the construction of three units in 2019, including a 2.8 million mt/year heavy oil catalytic cracker, a 550,000 mt/year lubricant hydrogenation unit, and a 200,000 mt/year alkylation unit. The start-up of these units will help update the processing capacity at the refinery to around 8 million mt/year, from the current 6 million mt/year.

–Sinopec’s Zhenhai refinery in Ningbo, eastern Zhejiang province, China, has issued four tenders for pre-construction works of its 1.2 million mt/year ethylene expansion project. The project also includes 15 million mt/year of refining capacity.

–Chinese independent refinery Haiyou Petrochemical has been building a new 1 million mt/year coker.

LAUNCHES

EXISTING ENTRIES

–China’s Zhejiang Petrochemical Co., or ZPC, has successfully started up its 10 million mt/year No.1 crude distillation unit and most of its refining units, a key step to fully commission its 400,000 b/d integrated refining and petrochemical facilities. ZPC’s No.2 CDU has been in commercial operation since late May. The company is gradually commissioning its secondary units connected to the CDU since then.

–Sinopec plans to start up its greenfield 10 million mt/year (200,000 b/d) Zhongke (Guangdong) refinery in Zhanjiang, southern Guangdong province in April 2020, a Sinopec refinery source said. Construction works at the Zhongke (Guangdong) refinery complex, which have begun since April 2018, are scheduled to be completed be December 2019, Platts reported earlier. The Zhongke refinery complex involves building a 10 million mt/year crude distillation unit, 4.2 million mt/year fluid catalytic cracking unit, 4.4 million mt/year residual oil hydrotreater, 2 million mt/year hydrocracker, 2 million mt/year gasoil hydrotreater, 1.8 million mt/year continuous reforming unit, 2 million mt/year light-hydrocarbon reclaiming unit and associated facilities. Besides, it also includes building an 800,000 mt/year ethylene steam cracking unit, 400,000 mt/year pyrolysis gasoline hydrogenation, 550,000 mt/year polypropylene, 350,000 mt/year high density polyethylene, 250,000 mt/year EO, 400,000 mt/year EG, 100,000 mt/year EVA, 180,000 cu m/hour coal-to-hydrogen units, a power station and other utilities and facilities.

–China’s independent Shenghong Group has opened a trading office in Singapore ahead of the start-up in the second half of 2021 of its 320,000 b/d refinery in Jiangsu province. Shenghong’s refinery will only have one crude distillation unit with a processing capacity of 16 million mt/year, which will become the single largest distillation unit in China.

–Saudi Aramco is boosting its downstream investments in China, creating a joint venture to build a $10 billion refinery and acquiring a stake in the greenfield Zhejiang Petrochemical refinery and petrochemical complex.

–PetroChina officially started construction work at its greenfield 20 million mt/year Guangdong petrochemical refinery in the southern Guangdong province on December 5, 2018. Trial operations at the refining complex are expected to start in October 2021.

–China’s coal chemical producer Xuyang Group has announced plans to build a greenfield 15 million mt/year refining and petrochemical complex in Tangshang in central Hebei province.

By Platts