December 13, 2018:

A hole in a valve was the source of an April explosion at a Husky Energy refinery in northwestern Wisconsin that injured 36 people and required the evacuation of a large part of the city of Superior, according to findings of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board presented Wednesday.  According to the update that was shared at a town hall meeting in Superior, erosion created a hole in the slide valve, allowing air to mix with hydrocarbons. The resulting blast sent debris hurtling into an asphalt storage tank. The puncture spilled about 15,000 gallons of hot asphalt, which later ignited and burned for hours.  The report linked the Superior explosion on April 26, 2018, to a 2015 explosion in Torrance, California, the Star Tribune reported. The board said in both cases, an explosive mix of air and hydrocarbons formed inside a fluid catalytic cracking unit because of ineffective safeguards. The unit converts hydrocarbons in petroleum into gasoline.  In both cases, the fluid catalytic cracking units were not in normal operating mode when the explosions happened and were nearing dates for upgrades, the board said.  Several people at the meeting said they want the Superior refinery to stop using hydrogen fluoride to process high-octane gasoline.

The highly corrosive chemical can produce toxic vapor clouds.   The tank containing hydrogen fluoride was not damaged by the explosion or fire. While some people who lived nearest to the refinery were told to evacuate due to the presence of hydrogen fluoride, others should have been told as well, said the Rev. Michelle R. Rowell of Concordia Lutheran Church in Superior.  “After that nearest evacuation was done, I think it was irresponsible that the rest of the community was not informed about the presence of that very dangerous chemical,” Rowell said.  A spokesman for Husky Energy said Wednesday the Canada-based company will continue working with the board to understand the cause of the explosion.  Husky Energy does not expect to resume normal operations at the Superior refinery until 2020 but says no one will be laid off because of the explosion.  “We’ve appointed an engineering contractor to oversee design work for the rebuild and as part of that process, we continue to evaluate options around the use of hydrogen fluoride,” Husky spokesman Mel Duvall said in an email.

By Associated Press 

December 6, 2018:

About 100 United Steelworkers union (USW) members rallied on Wednesday outside a LyondellBasell Industries Houston oil refinery to protest the lack of negotiations there on a new local contract. Talks on a national oil-workers agreement are due to begin next month with Shell Oil Co, the U.S. unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, as the lead industry negotiator. Existing union contracts expire on Feb. 1. Local groups are beginning discussions, however, on individual plant issues ahead of the national talks. At least four other plants also have begun exchanging proposals on local issues, according to the USW.

By Reuters

December 5, 2018:

Duqm Refinery announced the financial closure of its $4.61 billion multi-sourced, Sharia-complaint project at a dinner held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Muscat. Speaking on the occasion, the President of Kuwait Petroleum International and Chairman of Duqm Refinery, Nabil Bourisli, said, “This achievement reflects the strength and stability of the Omani and Kuwaiti economies. It also reflects the trust and confidence placed by local, regional and international financial institutions in our economic ties that are deeply rooted in history. Our vision is aimed at maximising the value of our natural resources and driving the two countries towards expanding their economic potential that leads to balanced economic growth.” “This is indeed a very important milestone for the project. It reflects the trust that financial institutions have placed in the project; it will no doubt be one of the key economic drivers for Sezad,” Eng. Hilal Al Kharusi, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Duqm Refinery, said. “Setting up the Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries Company was an important milestone for petrochemical industries and the key to establishing new downstream industries and creating job opportunities,” he added.

“Kuwaiti banks were effectively involved in financing the project, achieving 32 per cent of the total loan amount. This was driven by the importance of the project, as well as the strategic partnership between the two countries," Eng. Khalid Al Mushaileh, vice president of Kuwait Petroleum International, said. “This project is in line with the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation 2040 strategy, and it is at the same time, a great opportunity to involve skilled Kuwaiti workforce to be a part of these external investments,” he added. “The $4.6 billion multi-sourced financing agreement signed for the project made it not only the largest project financing in the Sultanate, it also included the largest Sharia-compliant facility awarded to a Greenfield project in the country provided by a consortium of Islamic financing institutions,” said Mubarak Al Naamany, Chief Financial Officer of Duqm Refinery. “Facilities were provided by 29 reputed financial institutions from 13 countries and guarantees from three major ECAs,” he added. “Achieving a debt-to-equity ratio of 55 per cent, with uncovered facilities of 70 per cent of total debt is a testament to the confidence placed by international, regional, and local lenders in the Sultanate, the shareholders, and the project,” Al Naamany said. The $4.6 billion senior debt facilities comprise seven agreements that include a $1.43 billion International Commercial Facility, a $490 million Onshore Commercial Facility, a $890 million Islamic Facility, a $700 million UKEF Covered Facility, a $500 million CESCE Covered Facility, a $600 million K-EXIM Covered and K-EXIM Direct Facilities. Regional banks played a big role in this deal, with funding from Kuwaiti and Omani banks representing 43 per cent of the total debt.

The refinery project comprises the development, construction, ownership and operation of the refinery, on-site utilities, infrastructure and storage, together with offsite facilities, including crude tank storage facilities in Ras Markaz, a crude oil pipeline to the refinery and a product export terminal at the Port of Duqm. The refinery is designed to be able to process a range of blended crude oils and configured as a full-conversion hydrocracker coking facility, which will utilise advanced technology supplied by leading technology licensors. Engineering, procurement and construction of the project are being undertaken under three lump sum turnkey contracts with world-class contractors. A formal notice to proceed was issued to the EPC contractors in June 2018.

By Times of Oman

December 4, 2018:

An oil company with a large refinery in Houston is mentioned as supplier in a new case about contaminated bunker in which shipping company Chembulk experienced problems. This marks the first time that a refinery is mentioned in one of the many cases. Limetree Bay Ventures, announced Nov. 30 that it had closed on $1.25 billion financing to restart its St. Croix refinery, which the company said could happen by “the end of next year.” There was no report on the $70 million Limetree Bay committed to release to the V.I. government upon closing of all the necessary agreements to restart the refinery, but company officials are speaking of the restart as a done deal. “The closing of the financing provides the resources necessary to complete the refinery restart,” said Brian Lever, president of Limetree Bay Refining, in a statement issued by the company. “We have 1,300 workers currently involved in the project and expect a significant ramp in activity over the coming months as we prepare for restart by the end of next year. We are very grateful to the broad team that has made this possible.” According to the company, the financing includes $550 million of preferred equity and a $700 million term loan. The preferred equity reportedly was led by funds and accounts managed by EIG Global Energy Partners, which was joined by other investors including funds affiliated with BlackRock and Barclays, The term loan was led by Westbourne Capital. ArcLight reportedly also made a significant additional common equity commitment to Limetree Bay.

Barclays acted as lead placement agent and EIG Global Energy Partners Capital Markets, LLC served as co-placement agent on the preferred equity issuance by Limetree Bay. Goldman Sachs Bank USA and Barclays acted as joint lead arrangers and joint bookrunners on the term loan issuance by Limetree Bay Refining. The government’s agreement with Limetree Bay calls for an immediate payment of $70 million; $40 million as a short-term loan and $30 million as payment for a land purchase.

“Upon the closing of the transaction, ArcLight Capital will make a $70 million closing payment to the Government of the Virgin Islands,” Government House announced in July, when unveiling a proposed new agreement with Limetree Bay and plans to potentially partially restart the refinery. At a July 18 hearing on the deal, Finance Commissioner Valdamier Collens said the deal involved “an up front payment of $70 million.” In August, Collens told the V.I. Legislature the “money was always contingent on ArcLight securing the deal with an operator which they have not done yet. When that happens then it will be immediate.” Although it was not discussed at the July hearing before the Legislature approved the agreement, a close reading finds two brief mentions of a “refinery transfer agreement” which has to be signed before the deal is considered “closed.” In the agreement’s introduction, there is a clause saying “… in order to facilitate a Refinery Restart, Terminal Operator will enter into on or around the date hereof a transfer and assignment agreement (the “Refinery Transfer Agreement”) with Refinery Operator, which is an indirect subsidiary of Limetree Bay Ventures … .” And buried in the terms for when the deal “closes” it says “the transactions contemplated by the Refinery Transfer Agreement shall have been consummated.” “They are waiting to finish up the negotiations with the actual franchisee that is going to be running the operations,” Budget Director Julio Rhymer said at the same hearing. Limetree Bay issued a release on business press release website PRNewsire but, in a change from past practice, did not send the Source a press release. Its past releases tell recipients to contact Limetree Bay at questions@lbterminals.com for more information. In November and again on Monday, the Source sent the following questions to that email address:

– Has Limetree Bay released the $70 million, reflecting that a contract is in place to restart and run the refinery?

– If not, why not?

– If so, why has this not been publicized?

– Will anyone representing Limetree Bay go on record by name saying there is a 100 percent certainty you will restart the refinery?

Limetree Bay had not responded to the Source’s requests for information.

By stjohnsource.com

Decemeber 4, 20018:

ASTANA – The Shymkent Oil Refinery recently completed a modernisation allowing it to meet Euro-4 and Euro-5 fuel standards while making the refinery more environmentally friendly.  The first stage from 2014-2017 equipped the refinery to meet K-4 and K-5 (Euro-4 and Euro-5) fuel standards, said Shymkent Oil Refinery Director Bolat Bayetov at a recent press conference announcing the completion of project.

“The K5 standard requires sulphur content in diesel fuel to be less than 10 PPM. Now we have the technical ability to do this. Since we mainly supply local market, consumers are satisfied with the Euro 4 (K4) standard products, but we can also produce Euro 5 (K5) products. Same situation is with gasoline,” he said, adding that prior to modernisation, refinery had worked according to Kazakh and interstate GOST standards. The first stage included equipping the refinery to produce elemental sulphur and building a light naphtha isomerisation unit. The stage also included the reconstruction of the refinery’s diesel hydro dewaxing refineries, said Bayetov. The second stage from 2015-2018 increased the refinery’s capacity to six million tonnes per year and improved its refining levels. The overall project also added over 400 jobs and improved the refinery’s ecological standards.

“The main objective from an environmental perspective is the reduction of sulphur removal in diesel fuel to less than 50 PPM (parts per million). According to GOST, the sulphur content was allowed up to 500 PPM. We reduced it from 500 PPM to 10 PPM,” he said. The refinery is meant largely to meet Kazakhstan’s light petroleum product needs and decrease the shortage of diesel fuel of the country. “We all know that there is a shortage of fuel during sowing and harvesting. Since Kazakhstan is a major agrarian country, much diesel fuel is needed for these periods,” said Bayetov. The refinery is supplied primarily by Kumkol oil filed in the Kyzylorda region. Kumkol oil is low in sulphur with approximately 6 percent of its liquefied gas, 38 percent of its gasoline, 25-27 percent of its diesel fuel, 12 percent of its fuel oil and 6-7 percent of its jet fuel, said Bayetov. The plant is also equipped for processing oil from the West Kazakhstan and Aktobe regions, which has a higher sulphur content. Next year the refinery plans to start producing jet fuel of the RT brand with further perspectives to produce Jet 1 international brand for local and international market. The Technip (Italy), Kazgiproneftetrans (Kazakhstan) and China Petroleum Engineering and Construction Corporation as the general contractor developed the project. Global leaders in oil refinery technology licensing U.S. Universal Oil Products and French Axens also worked on the project.

By astanatimes.com