REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: Strike at French Grandpuits, more plants called to join

London — All units at Total's Grandpuits refinery in central France are now fully offline as a result of a strike called by staff to protest against job losses resulting from the conversion of the refinery into a biorefinery, a union source said.

Total halted the crude distillation unit at Grandpuits Nov. 16 but the other units at the site had remained in operation. All units are now halted and product deliveries have also stopped, while work to prepare the conversion of the refinery has also been halted. Strikes started in October at the site. The CGT union has called on nine of Total's sites in France, including refineries and petrochemical plants, to join the strike action Feb. 3-4. Separately, there is also a general call for a nationwide strike in France for Feb. 4.

Meanwhile, Eni is evaluating conversion of its Livorno refinery in northwest Italy into a biorefinery, as part of the Italian company's wider strategy to make its activities more environmentally sustainable, a company spokesperson said. Eni has already converted two of its Italian refineries and said last October that it may speed up the conversion plan for its traditional refineries, with the aim to be producing 5 million mt/year of biofuels by 2050.

** Portugal's Galp said in a regulatory filing Dec. 21 it will discontinue refining operations at the Porto refinery from 2021 and concentrate its core refining activities and future developments at its larger Sines refinery. Galp said it will focus on enhancing the resilience and competitiveness of the Sines site, with a view to improving efficiency and to integrate the production of advanced biofuels and other cleaner as well as more valuable products. The Porto refinery, which came on stream in 1969, halted fuel production for a second time last year on Oct. 10 due to the impact of COVID-19 on fuel demand and high inventories.

** Total said it was halting operations at its Donges refinery in France for economic reasons from Nov. 30. Trading sources said at the time the a restart was likely at some point in January but there has been no further update from the company.

** Petroineos said that it was continuing consultations with employees, which started on Nov. 16, regarding its proposal to reconfigure the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland "to meet current and future anticipated demand" for fuels. The company proposes a smaller refining operation at Grangemouth and plans to mothball CDU1 and the FCC, two units that "have been closed throughout the COVID pandemic due to significantly reduced local and international demand for fuels".

** One of the two distillation units at Cepsa's La Rabida is currently idled but set to quickly resume operations if demand improves, the company said Jan. 14. Fuel unit 1 and and Vacuum Unit 2 have been offline since they concluded maintenance in Q4 2020.

** Croatia's Rijeka refinery will optimize its operations from November "for a few months" and during that period will "perform regular technological activities at process units such as catalyst regeneration and preparation of these plants for the new processing cycle in 2021 through regular maintenance work." Local media reported that the refinery will temporarily halt production between November and January due to reduced demand.

** Finland's Neste said it will shut down its Naantali refinery by the end of March as part of its restructuring. Operations at its Porvoo refinery will be revamped to focus on co-processing renewable and circular raw materials.

** Gunvor Group said it would mothball its Antwerp refinery, but "will continue terminal activities, as well as further assess future development opportunities for the land and existing units." The refinery stopped crude processing at the end of May.

** Shell has relaunched the sale of its Fredericia refinery in Denmark after suspending the sale in 2018.

** Total has agreed to sell its Lindsey refinery in the UK to fuel trading and marketing Prax Group, as the French oil major focuses on its integrated downstream assets and the coronavirus adds to the uncertainty over long-term demand for fuel.

** At Spain's Bilbao the FCC was taken offline in April, and the company has not commented on its restart. At Spain's Tarragona, the refinery is online with units adapted to market conditions. The smaller crude unit (Crude 2) has been used as a swing unit to allow more flexibility.

Separately, oil product sales on the Spanish retail market declined 25% year on year to 31.0 million cu m (approximately 24.8 million mt) in 2020, with Q4 volumes only showing a small pick-up from Q3, data from national fuel distributor Compania Logistica de Hidrocarburos (CLH) showed. While Q2 was the worst-performing quarter, with a 45% year-on-year drop in retail fuel sales, the return of tighter travel restrictions in Q4 has meant a 23% decline in Q4 demand to 8.03 million cu m, the data showed, compared with a 23% decline in Q3 to 8.26 million cu m. The worst-performing fuel type has been kerosene, whose demand dropped 92% in Q2 to 154,000 cu m (approximately 123,000 mt), before recovering partially to a decline of 73% in both Q3 and Q4 to 622,000 cu m and 451,000 cu m, respectively.

Italy's demand for refined oil products in 2020 dropped 17.1%, or 10.3 million mt, year on year, to 49.9 million mt, the lowest consumption levels since the 1960s. Gasoline and diesel for automotive use fell a combined 17.7%, or by 5.5 million tons, to 25.6 million mt, the UP said. Gasoline in the period fell by 21.2% while diesel slumped 16.6%. Jet fuel plunged 69% in 2020 as demand for airline travel continued falling from the coronavirus pandemic. Demand for military jet fuel jumped 105%, bucking the general trend.

French road fuel deliveries in December 2020 dropped 10.2% year on year to 3.838 billion liters, with a 9.4% fall in diesel consumption compounded by a 12.8% drop in gasoline consumption, according to industry group UFIP citing data from the country's oil industry committee CPDP. Over 2020, French consumption of road fuels fell 15% year on year to 42.555 billion liters, with a 13.7% drop in gasoline demand and a 15.4% decrease for diesel. However, deliveries of Gazole Non Routier -- off road diesel, which is an ultra-low sulfur product used for agriculture and in the construction industry -- rose 1.8% in 2020 to 5.291 billion liters. Looking at other products, jet fuel demand plunged 53.4% on the year in December to 309 million liters. Over 2020, jet fuel consumption is down 55.7% at 3.884 billion liters. The aviation industry has been the most affected by coronavirus globally and still is at the beginning of 2021.

Road fuel demand in Hungary in the fourth quarter was down 8.6% year on year, led by poor gasoline sales after lockdown measures were introduced in November to combat a second wave of COVID-19, data from the Hungarian Petroleum Association (MASZ) showed. Within that, gasoline consumption was down 10% year on year to 337 million liters, the lowest Q4 reading since 2016. Diesel demand fell 7.5% to 562 million liters, MASZ said. In all of 2020, fuel demand fell 7.8% to a three-year low 3.61 billion liters, including an 8.3% drop in diesel and a 6.9% decline in gasoline sales.

Meanwhile mobility improved in Europe's five biggest economies in early January even as Germany and France extended their economic lockdowns in a bid to curb the spread of new COVID-19 strains. European oil demand is forecast to have fallen 17%, or 1.5 million b/d, in 2020, with jet fuel and gasoline seeing the biggest falls in demand at 55% and 17%, respectively, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics.

In other news, Shell's Pernis refinery in the Netherlands said that flaring was possible in early January after completing a repair to a unit and its subsequent restart. The refinery also reported flaring late Dec. 21 at a malfunctioning unit. It did not specify which unit.

Greek Hellenic Petroleum said that it expects the port of Elefsis, which is used for loading by some of its refineries, to "resume normal operations in days" following a "technical issue" at one of the jetties. The loading section at the Greek port, also known as Eleusis, or Elefsina, has sustained damage, S&P Global Platts reported previously. The damage happened on Jan. 15, sources said. Following the incident, Hellenic said it will reschedule "for a few days" export loadings.

NEW AND ONGOING MAINTENANCE

FUTURE MAINTENANCE

Near-term maintenance

New and revised entries

** BP's Rotterdam refinery, which went offline in mid January following an incident at the facility, was not expected to start loading products until February, trading sources said. Previously, sources said the refinery was bringing its units back online over the course of last week. So far it has started one CDU, but the other one remained offline as well as an alkylation unit, according to traders. The refinery halted its two CDUs on Jan. 14 as part of a full shutdown following a power outage and fire. The power failure occurred in the control room after which all units were halted. The fire, which involved a cable in a substation, was extinguished after grounding the cables, the local environmental service reported.

** All units at France's Grandpuits refinery are now fully offline as a result of a strike called by staff against the loss of jobs following the conversion of the refinery, a union source from the CGT union said. Total halted the crude distillation unit at Grandpuits Nov. 16 but the other units at the refinery had remained in operation. All units are now halted and product deliveries have also stopped. Work to prepare the dismantling of the refinery has been halted.

** Spain's Petronor said Jan. 22 it will halt its G2 diesel desulfurization unit in Plant 2 of Bilbao for seven days from Jan. 23. The refinery halted its number 2 crude distillation on Nov. 20, 2020, in reaction to weaker market conditions. The halt has affected 40% of the refinery's crude distillation and also includes the visbreaking unit. Bilbao also halted its N2 naphtha desulfurization unit in Plant 2 on Dec. 11, 2020, without saying how long the unit would be offline, while the FCC was taken offline in April, and the company has not confirmed its restart.

** The Milazzo refinery located on the Southern Italian island of Sicily is currently running maintenance on some units ahead of placing its LC Finer unit offline in scheduled wide-scale upgrade works at the plant in the first quarter of 2021, a source close to the refinery said. No information was available on which units were involved in the works, or if the production output was affected. There was also no information available on the duration of the maintenance. The upcoming wide-scale maintenance that included the LC Finer unit being placed offline was originally scheduled for 2019 and postponed various times.

** The ISAB refinery in Sicily, which postponed its Dec. 15, 2020 scheduled restart after the completion of a two-month maintenance cycle that began Oct. 15, may return most units to operation in February barring the integrated gasification combined cycle unit, which will likely be back online only in April, a person close to the company said. The situation may change depending on evolving market conditions, and the restart schedule will be reviewed on a monthly basis. ISAB is made up of two refineries connected by a pipeline. The north and south plants operate as a single refinery after the two separate units were integrated in 2007. The separate IGCC plant is connected to the north and south complexes as well.

** One of the two distillation units at Cepsa's La Rabida is currently idled but set to quickly resume operations in case of demand improvement, with Cepsa continuing to adapt the refinery utilization ratio to current demand, the company said Jan. 14. Fuel unit 1 and and Vacuum Unit 2 have been offline since they concluded their last maintenance in Q4 2020.

Existing entries

** France's Fos refinery started the shutdown of some units on Jan. 4 for planned maintenance, the company said Jan. 5. It also said it expected "to meet all contractual commitments using our built up inventories".

** Following a closure of a unit at France's Lavera, there has been flaring, according to a company statement. Traders also reported an outage at the refinery although details have not been confirmed.

** Czech Kralupy refinery is currently undergoing maintenance shutdown, the company said Dec. 10.

** Tupras will halt production at its Izmir refinery between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28 for maintenance, the company said in a disclosure to the Istanbul stock exchange. The company did not specify in the disclosure exactly what maintenance would be carried out. But in a teleconference presentation published following its third-quarter results, the company listed a number of planned maintenance projects that had been scheduled for Q4 2020 and all but one of which had been postponed to unspecified periods in 2021.

These included work on the U400 FCC unit, planned to take six weeks staring in Q4, as well as work on the U9200 CCR unit planned to take seven weeks, the U9600 Isomerisation unit planned to take eight weeks, and the U9900 MQD unit planned to take seven weeks. Tupras said that it did not anticipate any effect on its sales during the shutdown as it planned to compensate for lost production by utilizing its existing stocks and continuing production at its other three refineries.

** Turkey's Tupras confirmed in November that it was planning to go ahead with some refinery maintenance work in 2020 having previously announced that all planned maintenance would be postponed to 2021. Work was planned on the Plt 100/1000 crude and vacuum unit at Batman slated to start in Q4 and continue for eight weeks, into Q1 2021.

** General maintenance at Germany's Leuna will be carried out in Q2 2021, although the exact timing is yet to be confirmed, the company said Oct. 19. The maintenance and an upgrade which had been scheduled for this autumn had been postponed "due to the ongoing pandemic and the resulting restrictions on travel and transport of goods, as well as the impact on international supply chains," the company said earlier this year. The maintenance had been planned to take placed over six weeks, S&P Global Platts reported previously. Total said in 2019 it would invest Eur150 million in the Leuna refinery over 2020-21 to reduce production of heavy products as demand decreased and increase production of methanol, a key feedstock for the chemical industry. The project will deepen the integration of refining and petrochemical operations and increase the competitiveness of the plant, Total said at the time. Methanol production will increase by 20% as a result of higher output from the visbreaker unit and an upgrade of the POX/methanol plant. Work was due to continue until 2021, with the bulk carried out during a major shutdown of the refinery in 2020, which will also cost around Eur150 million.

** Croatia's Rijeka refinery will be optimizing its operations from November "for a few months" and during that period will "perform regular technological activities at process units such as catalyst regeneration and preparation of these plants for the new processing cycle in 2021 through regular maintenance work," the company said late Oct. 7. Earlier local media reported that the refinery will temporarily halt production between November and January due to reduced demand caused by the spring lockdown and a weak tourist season.

** Two planned maintenances at the Castellon refinery is eastern Spain have been pushed back, with no fixed date for when they will now go ahead. The first was previously scheduled for May and to last two to three weeks, affecting two distillation units, the powerformer 1 and the HVN. A second maintenance, initially due for November for two to three weeks, affecting one conversion unit (treatment plant) and the 1.4 million mt/year coker, has been pushed back into 2021.

** Total halted operations at its Donges refinery in France for economic reasons from Nov. 30. According to trading sources, the shutdown is expected to last around a month and the refinery is likely to restart in January.

** France's Gonfreville is working at around 50% capacity after its CDU was damaged in december 2019.

** Eni's Sannazzaro de Burgondi refinery in northern Italy started another cycle of maintenance and upgrade works, even as a decision on when to reactivate its Eni slurry technology (EST) unit, which has been offline since a 2016 fire, is still outstanding. The works being carried out are not the series of works planned for the EST unit that had previously been suspended.

** The Canary Islands' only refinery on Tenerife will be permanently closed in the long term. There has been no production since 2014. Cepsa will install some logistics and storage facilities at the site, amid a wider regeneration project.

Future

Existing entries

** Valero said that it carried out FCC works at UK's Pembroke in Q2 which had been originally planned as part of a large scale 2021 turnaround.

** Czech Unipetrol said that following the turnaround at its Litvinov plant in Q2'20 the refinery has prepared production for a new four-year cycle. Thus the next turnaround is due in 2024.

** Lukoil's Neftochim refinery in Burgas, Bulgaria, will be carrying out major works in 2021, including atmospheric vacuum unit 1, atmospheric vacuum units 2, atmospheric vacuum distillation 2, FCC, hydrotreatment, hydrocracker, according to company tender documents. The refinery typically carries out works around February-March.

** With its 2020 maintenance, Romania's Petromidia and the petrochemical division "will align with the new operating strategy, with a general turnaround scheduled for 4 years and technological shutdowns scheduled for 2 years," the company said.

** Finland's Neste said that its Porvoo refinery's major turnaround in 2020 is postponed to 2021 and would be carried in phases. The company had planned works for the second quarter of this year, but had to postpone them due to the coronavirus pandemic.

** Germany's Mineraloelraffinerie Oberrhein (Miro) will carry out a major turnaround in 2021. It will invest Eur300 million, with two-thirds going on new projects and a third for upgrading the existing plants during the turnaround.

** Two months of maintenance at the Sarpom refinery in Trecate, Italy, originally scheduled for October 2019 have been pushed back to 2021. Details on which units at the refinery will be upgraded as part of the maintenance -- of the kind needed every 3-4 years -- had yet to emerge.

** The Holborn refinery near Hamburg, northern Germany, plans its next turnaround in 2023. Its previous maintenance was in the autumn of 2018. The refinery carries out major works every five years.

** The next major maintenance at Poland's Gdansk is planned for spring 2021.

** The next major turnaround at Preem's Gothenburg refinery in Sweden will be in 2021.

** Romania's Petrobrazi will undergo its next big turnaround in 2022.

** Total's Feyzin is considering mothballing a visbreaker unit around 2021 as demand for heavy fuel is gradually declining and the unit works on average no more than three days a month. As a result of the mothballing seven people would lose their jobs, but would be offered other jobs within the organization, the company said.