REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: European refiners restart, expect better results in H2

London — After a bleak H1, European refiners are expecting results to improve in the second half of the year.

Meanwhile, refineries that had halted in the spring in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak are now all back online, including Feyzin and Porto.

** In Greece, Motor Oil Hellas expects operating results to improve in H2, as maintenance has been completed and the refinery can "deliver refining margins at the top end of the sector." However it noted that an important parameter will be "the recovery of the demand for petroleum products at an international and domestic level." MOH said that its Corinth refinery processed 4.042 million mt of crude oil in the first half of 2020, down from 4.696 million mt in the year ago period, mostly due to the scheduled maintenance in January and February. It also processed 343,530 mt of fuel oil, down from 547,422 mt last year, and 1.027 million mt of gasoil, up from 890,481 mt. Overall the Corinth refinery processed 5.489 million mt of feedstock in H1 2020, down from 6.226 million mt. The increase of gasoil processing was attributed to the "ability to sell heating gasoil well into Q2" as the government extended the deadline for domestic sales of heating oil into May compared to the usual stop of such sales at the beginning of April, the company said in a conference call. In its crude mix, Basrah Light had a 36% share, followed by Kirkuk at 19%, Basrah Heavy at 18% and CPC Blend at 16%.

** Greek refiner Hellenic said Aug. 27 that it maintained high operating levels in the second quarter "despite the adverse conditions" due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with production amounting to 3.7 million mt, flat year-on-year. The company added that it utilized "the large storage capacity of its refineries, while, at the same time, proceeded with contango trades." The company however noted that, while the lifting of restrictions led to economic recovery, fuel consumption is still lagging last year's levels, "especially in sectors such as tourism, air transport and coastal marine." Tourist arrivals in Greece in H1 were down by 77%, Hellenic said in its Q2 report. Hellenic reported a "significant decline" in refining margins as crude prices "recorded a gradual recovery" since May, after reaching the lowest levels since 2003. "Diesel and gasoline cracks, the main output of the group's refineries, fell to multi-year lows due to the collapse of demand, especially in the first half of the 2Q20 and the high global inventories," the company said.The company said during a conference call that it is "bracing for a difficult Q3", partly due to a slow tourist season, but added that, once the Aspropyrgos maintenance is completed, it expects to see gradual recovery of the environment "over the next few quarters". Hellenic's three refineries ran at a 102% utilization rate in Q2, compared with 104% a year earlier. The company said that it "significantly differentiated" its crude slate, due to the IMO operating model of Aspropyrgos and crude from Azerbaijan, Algeria and the US was "increasingly participating" in its crude slate.

** In Spain, Repsol expects its Spanish refineries to run at a utilization rate of 77% for the full year, CEO Josu Jon Imaz said July 23. This would mean a slight increase in the second half to around 78% after reporting rates of 70% in Q2 and 82% in Q1. The conversion rate for the full year is seen at 92%, which would mean a rate of around 93% in the second half after rates of 82% in Q2 and 100% in Q1.

** Spanish-based integrated oil group Cepsa said July 30 it expects refinery rates at its Spanish complexes to steadily approach the optimal run rate by year-end, assuming the positive trend in demand continues.

** France's Grandpuits refinery could be closed as a refinery and converted into a plant for the production of bio plastics due to potentially costly repairs on the Ile-de-France pipeline (PLIF) bringing crude to the plant, according to local media reports.

** Gunvor Group said June 23 that it has commenced the process of assessing whether to mothball its Antwerp site, "given the uncertainties that the refinery will be again an economically viable operation in the near future."

** Gunvor's Rotterdam refinery, which postponed maintenance previously due to COVID-19, is in maintenance until October.

** Finland's Neste deferred planned maintenance. Norway's Mongstad has decided to postpone maintenance work originally scheduled to take place in May. Two planned maintenances at Spain's Castellon have been pushed back, with no fixed date for their execution.

** Portugal's Galp has resumed normal operations in all units at the Porto refinery with production at levels adjusted to the reality of the market, a company spokesman said Aug. 27. The fuel units of the refinery restarted production on July 19, after being taken offline in April during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company maintained its base oil and aromatic units in operation during the period. In early June, production at the company's larger 220,000 b/d Sines refinery was resumed, and the complex is now operating steadily, the spokesman said.

** Hungary's MOL said that it is planning only small-scale maintenance works across its refineries in the remainder of 2020, in line with its original plan. MOL reported total throughput of 4.45 million mt in the second quarter, up 8.3% year on year. MOL said growth was partly the result of a low base last year -- affected by major turnarounds -- but also reflected MOL's decision to rely more on its own refined products and less on those purchased from third parties.

** 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.

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

** Israel's Bazan said that its domestic oil products sales started rising in May, after "a significant decrease" in April. Its April jet sales were down 80% on the year, whereas gasoline and diesel recorded 30% drop each. However jet fuel represents 8% of its output, "regarding which Bazan has significant flexibility by adjusting its product mix", the company said in its Q2 results. In May, there was "significant increase" of domestic sales compared with April and the year-on-year decline in gasoline and diesel sales narrowed to 12% with the same year-on-year decline for the two products reported for June. In July, the decline of diesel and gasoline sales was only 2% down compared with July 2019. During Q2, the utilization rate of the Haifa refinery was 80%, down from 96% in the year-ago, the company said, adding that "if necessary" it can reduce the gasoline imports and divert "certain sales from the domestic market to its export markets, and adjusts its inventory levels." It processed 1.953 million mt of heavy crude oil in Q2 and 144,000 mt of heavy vacuum gasoil. In H1, its utilization was 85%, down from 95%. In the wake of COVID-19, Bazan takes measures to reduce costs and is currently examining the timing and scope of its planned maintenance in 2021.

** Turkish diesel demand over the first 29 days of August rose 4.81% year on year to 1.614 billion liters, energy ministry data showed. The data shows a continued slowing of the increase in demand of recent months but is still a stark contrast to the fall of 27.7% in May, when travel restrictions imposed to combat the spread of the coronavirus were still in place. Gasoline demand over the first 29 days of August totaled 305.1 million litres, up 8.68% year on year.

** Oil product withdrawals by the Spanish retail market in August fell 22% year on year to 2.7 million cu m (2.2 million mt), showing only a slight improvement from July's 24% decline as weak jet fuel demand continued to weigh on the total, data from Spanish national fuel distributor Compania Logistica de Hidrocarburos (CLH) published Sept. 2 showed. Kerosene demand in August in Spain was down 67% year on year at 250,000 cu m (about 200,000 mt), recovering slightly from a 75% decline in July and a 92% decline in the second quarter, with some aviation companies running limited schedules and others canceling flights amid a tightening of COVID-19 measures in the country during the peak summer tourist season. In other product groups, gasoline and diesel demand which had both shown some recovery in July, widened their declines in August.

** Italy's refined oil products demand in July fell 13.9% year on year to 4.8 million mt though the pace of previous month's decline slowed due to a pick up in demand following the easing of the two-month lockdown on May 4, according to data released by industry group Unione Petrolifera. For July "we are seeing a gradual recovery in consumption, tied to the slow recovery of the manufacturing industry and to the upcoming (August) holidays," Unione Petrolifersa said in the emailed statement. "Despite the lack of tourist flows from abroad, the national tourism levels have led to a recovery in gasoline, diesel and LNG demand which suffered much less when compared to declines experienced in the previous months, even as they are still in negative territory compared to 2019." For the month of August, UP expects an 11% decline in oil product demand due to slumping airline and cruise ship traffic tied to international travel restrictions in addition to lower overall road transport volumes, the statement said.

In other news, increased flaring has been reported at Total's Antwerp refinery in eraly September due to a unit malfunction and its subsequent shutdown, according to a company tweet and local media reports. The flaring, which started Sept. 3 was expected to continue until Sept. 5.

The UK's Fawley refinery said Aug. 17 that the start-up of units that had been affected by an operational interruption at the facility "will take a number of further days", adding that the refinery expects further flaring "may continue through this week." The interruption, which occurred late on Aug. 13, resulted in flaring and noise. The flaring will "gradually reduce as units return to service," the refinery said.

NEW AND ONGOING MAINTENANCE, UPGRADES

FUTURE

UPGRADES

LAUNCHES

Near term maintenance

New and revised entries

** Greek refiner Hellenic said Aug. 27 that the planned maintenance at its Aspropyrgos refinery, the first after a five-year run, will start on Aug. 28, with the gradual shutdown of units, and will last nine weeks, "two more than planned, to include additional safety measures for COVID-19." Due to the maintenance, Hellenic expects 800,000 mt lower output spread over Q3 and Q4.

** Petronor said in a statement Aug. 31 that it will carry out a 24 hour maintenance on its desulfurization unit in plant 2 at Bilbao starting Sept. 1. The work follows previous maintenance work on the G4 diesel desulfurization unit between Aug. 11 and Aug. 13.

** Flaring has been reported at the beginning of September from France's Feyzin refinery during a unit restart, according to local media report. The company said in late August that the refinery restarted after maintenance without providing further details. The refinery resumed its maintenance in May, after it was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. The petrochemical part of the plant was operating normally. Work started on Feb. 14 and was due to last around seven weeks. At the end of July, Total reported a drop in Q2 and H1 2020 utilization partly due to the prolonged shutdown of Feyzin.

** Preparations for the scheduled shutdown at the Wesseling site of the Rheinland refinery have almost been completed and planned maintenance will start on Aug.20, the company said Aug.18. The works are expected to continue until October, the company previously said, without specifying the units affected. Petrochemicals sources said the methanol unit at the site will undergo maintenance at the same time, but the exact dates were not available. The unit has a total annual capacity of 400,000 mt. The refinery consists of the Wesseling (south) and Godorf (north) sites.

** Germany's Heide Raffinerie will carry out planned maintenance between September 2-October 1. Preparations for the work have been underway for two years and will include three production plants. The refinery has postponed planned maintenance for six months due to the coronavirus outbreak, it said in April. The planned turnaround would have taken a quarter of its capacity offline. A propylene unit is also due to undergo works, sources said.

Existing entries

** Turkey's Tupras said that work on the U-400 FCC, U-9200 CCR, U-9900 Isomerization and U-9900 MQD units at Izmir and the Plt-6 Desulphurizer at Izmit, all of which had been scheduled to take between three to eight weeks each during the fourth quarter, have been postponed to 2021.

** Saras, which owns Italy's Sarroch refinery, has started carrying out maintenance work on its hydrocracker (MHC) diesel unit in the past few weeks.

** Finland's Neste said July 23 that there is "scheduled catalyst change in one of our Porvoo units in the third quarter and at the Rotterdam refinery in the fourth quarter."

** Russian energy group Lukoil's ISAB refinery in Sicily will carry out wide-scale maintenance and upgrades in the autumn that were delayed from March-April.

** 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.

** Gunvor said June 23 that it's Rotterdam refinery is currently undergoing a turnaround due to be completed in October. The company said at the end of March that it was delaying the turnaround due to the coronavirus pandemic. Gunvor halted CDU1 in November for economic reasons and also to prepare for the upcoming turnaround in March, it said previously. The refinery has CDU units of 38,000 b/d and 50,000 b/d capacity.

** France's Gonfreville is working at around 50% capacity after its CDU was damaged. Works to repair the crude distillation unit at the Gonfreville refinery which have been suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak have now resumed, according to market sources. Total said earlier the CDU, which was damaged in December following a fire at a pump feeding crude oil, will restart before the end of the year.

** Planned general maintenance and an upgrade at Germany's Leuna refinery this autumn has 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. The maintenance had been planned to take placed over six weeks, regional newspaper Mitteldeutsche Zeitung reported. Total said in 2019 it would invest Eur150 million ($166 million) to reduce production of heavy products as demand decreases, and increase production of methanol, a key feedstock for the chemical industry. Work was due to continue until 2021, with the bulk carried out during a major shutdown of the refinery in 2020.

** 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. No information was provided on which plants were involved in the maintenance and upgrade works, nor when the EST plant would be restarted. The works being carried out are not the series of works planned for the EST unit that had previously been suspended, the source said.

** 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 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.

** Italy's Milazzo will carry out wide-scale maintenance and upgrade works on its diesel plants in the second quarter of 2021. Around half of the refinery's plants will be involved in the maintenance works. The works were originally planned for the autumn of this year but were recently postponed to next year after the COVID-19 crisis and the subsequent drop in demand for refined products led Milazzo to cancel all but necessary maintenance and investment works this year.

** 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.

** Italy's Livorno will avoid all non-essential maintenance and investment as part of a plan to reduce coronavirus-related risks. As part of the decision, the refinery will postpone a planned extraordinary maintenance cycle scheduled for October to 2021, though it is not clear whether this will take place in the first few months of the year or in April-May. The October maintenance was originally scheduled to last about one and a half months and would have involved most of the refinery's main units as well as its storage plants.

** 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 in its Q1 report that its Porvoo refinery's major turnaround in 2020 is now 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.

** The next large-scale maintenance at France's Grandpuits will be in 2021. The works will include cleaning and repair of units, as well as works to improve performance. Works are planned to take place in Q1, 2021, Total said.

** Germany's Mineraloelraffinerie Oberrhein (Miro) will carry out a major turnaround in 2021. It will invest Eur300 million ($333 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.

** Repsol's refinery at Puertollano in central Spain will carry out an upgrade of its olefins unit as part of planned maintenance of the cracker and chemical derivative plants at the end of 2020.

** 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.

Upgrades

New and revised entries

** The industrial complex in Tarragona will adapt one of its units to manufacture advanced high resistance polypropylene with startup in 2021, Repsol said Aug. 27. The company will invest Eur32 million ($37.77 million) in the upgrade in which it will install a second reactor at one of its polypropylene production units in the chemical area of its industrial complex at the site. When operational, the plant will be the first of its kind in the Iberian peninsula to produce the highly specialized polymers for use in the automotive sector, Repsol said.

** UK Humber refinery plans a capacity increase for its renewable diesel output in mid-2021, the company said Aug. 21. Humber can produce 1,000 b/d of renewable diesel, after starting production around a year ago, and will reach 4,000 b/d next year. It is processing used cooking oil in the cracker, it said during a Q2 conference call.

** The Kazakh-Romanian Energy Investment Fund (FIEKR) has signed an engineering, procurement and construction contract for Turkey's Calik Enerji to build a cogeneration plant at Romania's Petromidia refinery, Rompetrol said in a statement. Commissioning of the $148 million project is targeted for the first half of 2023. The new combined electricity and heat production plant will use natural gas as the main fuel. It will have capacity of 80 MW, of which 60-70 MW will fully cover the Petromidia plant's electricity needs with up to 20 MW used to heat water for the town of Navodari's heating system. Romania's Petromidia is also planning to build a diesel dewaxing unit "which will allow the refinery to significantly improve the process of obtaining diesel fuels in the wintertime," the company said in a statement. The project has estimated completion in September 2022. Separately, a second project is aimed at the increase by more than 30% of the production of polymers in the petrochemical division of Petromidia, which is "the sole producer in Romania in this field".

** Greece's Motor Oil Hellas said that its capital expenditure in H1 included the naphtha treatment complex, which has entered the construction phase in 2020 and is expected to be completed in Q1 2022.

Existing entries

** Poland's second largest refiner Grupa Lotos Gdansk refinery in H1 continued its Hydrogen recovery unit project, which is 99% complete, and will help increase the production of hydrogen, LPG and naphtha. However its commissioning date, previously planned for H12020 has been postponed to the second half of the year "due to difficulties related to the pandemic and technical issues". Furthermore, there is a risk of delayed launch of projects in pre-FID phase, such as the HBO (oil hydrocracker). Grupa Lotos is looking at developing a hydrocracker unit for the production of base oils.

** Valero said the cogen project at Pembroke, UK will be completed in 2021. It has previously said that the project had slowed down, "pushing out" the mechanical completion by six to nine months. In 2016, Valero submitted a planning application to build a 45 MW combined heat and power generation plant at Pembroke, which will provide power to the refinery and supplement its steam demand.

** PKN Orlen laid the foundation stone July 6 to mark the start of a Zloty 1 billion ($254 million) investment to build a visbreaking unit at its Plock refinery. The unit, which will increase gasoline and diesel yield at the refinery, is being built by a consortium of KTI Poland and IDS-BEU under a turnkey contract. It will be completed by the end of 2022. The company has said previously the visbreaker will allow the refinery to reduce fuel oil output and increase its production of distillates. The unit will have a capacity to produce 200,000 mt/year of diesel. Ongoing modernization of the hydrocracking and diesel hydrodesulfurisation units at Plock will also increase the refinery's diesel production capacity. PKN Orlen, said it has purchased a license and basic design for the modernization of a hydrodesulfurisation (HOG) unit to increase the production of high-margin products at its Plock refinery. PKN signed a contract to buy the license from Axens. The HOG unit at Plock was launched in 1999. The modernization will allow the unit to produce more diesel and gasoline.

** Spanish integrated energy company Repsol said June 15 it will build a 10-MW, green-hydrogen plant which it will use to produce synthetic fuels in collaboration with Saudi Aramco at its Bilbao refinery. The plant is part of an Eur80-million decarbonization project that will also include a carbon-capture project and a fuel-from-waste plant, and should be completed by 2024.

** An upgrade of Preem's Lysekil refinery near Brofjorden, Sweden, which has been cleared by the highest environmental court in Sweden, is now awaiting government approval, the company said June 18. The upgrade, which is part of the refinery's drive to ensure climate neutrality by 2040, was awaiting decisions by the land and environment court of appeal as well as the government. The plan includes a phase-out of fossil fuel and production of 5 million m3 of renewable gasoline, diesel and jet fuel by 2030. The refinery is not planning to increase the processing of crude oil but to reduce the fuel oil output. Around 20% of the refinery's current output is HSFO, demand for which had diminished following the IMO 2020 sulfur cap on marine fuel. Preem is aiming to build a slurry hydrocracking plant that can convert fuel oil into sulfur-free gasoline and diesel. It can also be used to make renewable fuels but need environmental clearance.

** Five 2 MW PEM electrolysers have been installed and testing has begun at Shell's Rheinland refinery in Germany, but delays to the Refhyne project are now anticipated due to coronavirus restrictions, UK hydrogen company ITM said in a trading update June 8. Germany's Rhineland has started the construction of a new hydrogen production plant, using electrolysis, at its Wesseling site. The investment project, due for completion in 2020, will generate hydrogen from electricity rather than natural gas. The refinery consists of the Wesseling (south) and Godorf (north) sites. Separately, the refinery has received permission to start construction of a new power plant at Godorf. The new plant is scheduled to go on stream in 2021. As part of the modernization, Shell is converting the power plant from oil to gas.

** Planned general maintenance and an upgrade at Germany's Leuna refinery this autumn has 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. Work was also due to continue in 2021 and by the end of next year the project would be completed. Total said in 2019 that it would invest Eur150 million ($166.5 million) over 2020-2021 to reduce production of heavy products as demand decreases, and increase production of methanol, an important feedstock for the chemical industry.

** Germany's Heide refinery is looking to cut its carbon dioxide production for its industrial operations using grey hydrogen for refined products desulfurization, and from early 2019 green hydrogen has been added to the mix for feedstock purposes. "The goal is to have a 700 MW of electrolysis capacity installed by 2030, this would be enough to abate 1 million mt of CO2 per year by producing 100,000 mt of hydrogen ... and this is only at our facility," said Wollschlaeger. To achieve its ambitions, Heide is part of the "Westkuste 100" consortium that includes EDF, Orsted, Stadtwerke Heide, Thuga and Thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions, which have teamed up to advance the use of green hydrogen for industrial purposes. The consortium submitted a proposal in early 2019 to the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy to seek funds for the project. The outcome is expected to be known by the middle to end of 2020.

** Poland's largest refiner PKN Orlen said it has completed the main part of its polyethylene 3 (PE3) investment at the Litvinov refinery in the Czech Republic. Unipetrol will build a pyrolytic unit for waste-plastic processing at its plant in Litvinov. Separately, McDermott International has been awarded a contract for engineering, procurement and construction management services for the upgrade of the hydrocracker at Czech Litvinov refinery. The completion is expected for Q2 2020.

** A new diesel hydrodesulfurization unit at France's Donges was expected to come online in 2023, Total said. Construction of the HDT-VGO units, which had been awarded to Kinetics Technology, will go ahead alongside a rail bypass which was the main requirement for the refinery's upgrade to proceed. Kinetics Technology said it had been awarded the contract for building the 40,000 b/d hydrotreater. The French government, local authorities, railway operator SNCF and Total signed a memorandum of intent in 2016 to build the railroad track bypassing the Donges refinery. Total said previously that, following the bypass agreement, it would proceed with the planned upgrade. The bypass will be ready in 2022.

** Turkish refiner Tupras' upgrade plans for its four refineries include a number of new units as well as works for modernizing existing ones. The company has opened an EPC tender valued at around $400 million for the construction of new sulfur units at its three main refineries, Izmit, Izmir and Kirikkale. Tupras has also signed a $66 million tender for the revamp of the FCC unit at Izmit, which will include the installation of flue gas treatment and energy back recovery systems. Installation work is set to start this year and complete in 2021. Work had already started on a $3.9 million modernization of the PLT-7 LPG Merox unit at Izmir designed to reduce sulfur content from 50 ppm to 30 ppm, to meet new emissions standards. Further upgrades planned at Izmir include a $25 million project to increase the capacity of the CCR U-9200 Platformer Unit from 160 cu m/hour to 225 cu m/hour, as well as a $69 million project to revamp the FCC unit and install flue gas treatment and energy recovery systems.

** Croatia's INA has selected Axens Futurol ethanol technology for the "basic engineering design" of an advanced bioethanol production plant at Sisak. Hungary MOL's Croatian affiliate INA made a final investment decision to carry out a residue upgrade project at the Rijeka refinery. The project includes building a delayed coker. MOL said the Sisak refinery will be converted into a bitumen production site and logistics hub. The facility may also produce lubricants and bio-fuel components too, subject to further investment decisions.

** Germany's Burghausen refinery is planning to commission a new ISO C4 system for the production of high purity isobutane in September.

** Serbia's Pancevo will upgrade the catalytic cracker, Gazprom Neft said. NIS, a subsidiary of Gazprom Neft, has signed a contract for developing the project with Lummus Technology, part of McDermott Group. The completion is earmarked for 2024. It is part of the refinery's modernization, ongoing since 2009. Within the same project a unit will be built for the production of high octane gasoline components. The deep processing complex, part of the second modernization phase, also under Lummus project, is in the final stages of construction. The launch of the complex, which includes a delayed coker and will increase the depth of processing to 99.2% and increase gasoline and diesel output, will help the refinery halt fuel oil output.

** Gunvor is studying the potential installation of an HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) at the Rotterdam refinery.

** Bosnia's Brod refinery is offline while it is being reconstructed. A pipeline, being built to supply it with natural gas to fuel its internal processes, is expected to be ready from Q3 2020. The refinery suspended its operations in 2019 for an upgrade and to prepare for the use of natural gas. The gas will replace fuel oil as a power source for the refinery processes.

** Varo Energy's Cressier refinery in Switzerland is installing a new column at the crude distillation unit which will allow it to reduce CO2 emissions but also to expand the scope of its light products yield. The column will start operations in the second quarter of 2020.

** Upgrade work to increase San Roque's refining margin, and construct a new hydrocracker, has been halted by local government, Cepsa said. The San Roque Council ordered earthworks at the site to be halted, affecting Cepsa's work on its "Bottom of the Barrel" project. The upgrades are targeted for completion by 2022. Separately, Cepsa will revamp Isomax, fluid catalytic cracker, alkylation units at San Roque and will construct a methylene unit (Sorbex II).

** ExxonMobil said it has "made a final investment decision to expand" the Fawley refinery in the UK to increase production of ULSD by 45%, or 38,000 b/d. The more than $1 billion investment includes a hydrotreater to remove sulfur from diesel, supported by a hydrogen plant. Start-up was expected in 2021.

** Russian Lukoil plans to invest in its ISAB refinery in southern Italy and has also dropped plans announced in 2017 to sell the plant having not received suitable offers. Lukoil will invest $60 million in upgrades, including two hydrodesulfurization units.

** Cepsa said it will carry out upgrades to its aromax and hydrocracker units at Huelva. It is also carrying out an aromatics optimization project at the refinery.

** Israel's Haifa District Court has rejected an appeal by Haifa municipality along with six other neighboring communities and environmental groups against the proposed expansion of the Bazan refinery.

** 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.

Launches

Existing entries

** Preliminary work on Estonia's new refinery has started, with an agreement signed between Eesti Energia and Viry Keemia Group with Italian company KT Kinetics Technology. The preliminary project is due to be completed in the summer of 2020, "after which the main project will be decided," according to Eesti Energia. The refinery will process 1.6 million mt/year shale oil and produce 1.5 million mt/year products. It is aimed to be completed in 2024 and produce naphtha, gasoil and ULSFO.

** Turkey's Ersan Petrol plans to start construction of its 1.4 million mt/year Nazli refinery at Kahramanmaras in southeast Turkey in mid-2020, with the plant expected to begin operations in less than four years, company owner Ecvet Sayer said.

** Azerbaijani state oil company Socar is considering the development of a second refinery in Turkey, in addition to its existing 214,000 b/d Star refinery at Aliaga on Turkey's central Aegean coast.