REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: Asian refiners look at alternatives to Russian crude

Asian refiners would have little problem sourcing alternatives to Russian crude oil, but end-users hope to see OPEC and its allies more than double the scale of the producer group's monthly production hike due to increasing feedstock cost burdens and faltering oil inventory levels, market participants said at the S&P Global Commodity Insights 9th Asian Refining and Petrochemicals Summit.

Asian refiners would have little problem sourcing alternatives to Russian crude oil, but end-users hope to see OPEC and its allies more than double the scale of the producer group's monthly production hike due to increasing feedstock cost burdens and faltering oil inventory levels, market participants said at the S&P Global Commodity Insights 9th Asian Refining and Petrochemicals Summit.

Asia's top crude importers including India, South Korea and Japan, are relatively unscathed by Russian supply disruptions in the wake of the Ukraine war and Western sanctions levied against Moscow's financial sector, as the Asian buyers' reliance on Russian crude is relatively low, Hisashi Miyagawa, crude oil trading manager at P66, said during a panel discussion at the S&P Global summit.

As Russian crude makes up around 3%-5% of major Asian economies' overall refinery feedstock imports, finding alternative sources wouldn't be too troublesome, Miyagawa said, indicating that light sweet WTI crude would be one of the top alternative options for regional end-users considering Asian refiners' extensive and well-established US crude trading network.

But run rates could nonetheless come under pressure in the coming months on the back of high oil prices and tight feedstock availability, speakers at summit said.

"We're expecting significant run rate cuts at existing refineries due to the tight supply of crudes worldwide, and it will take time for the market to get balanced again," Royston Huan, analyst for strategy and market research at PetroChina, said.

Australia's Viva Energy will no longer buy crude oil of Russian origin and the company made efforts to resell Russian-origin oil that it purchased before the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the refiner said in a statement March 8. The Australian refiner indicated that two Russian-origin oil cargoes were purchased from international trading companies prior to the conflict and are due to arrive over the next two months. Viva Energy has explored options to dispose of these cargoes, but there are no credible buyers willing to take the barrels in the current market, the company said.

Thailand is poised to reduce Russian crude imports due to financial and logistical hurdles and increase light sweet crude purchases from Southeast Asia, Africa and North America to fill any gaps, market and trading participants said March 9. State-run PTT often buys Far East Russian Sokol crude, while the country takes small volumes of ESPO crude from the Far East Russian market time to time, according to feedstock management sources at Thai refiners and petrochemical companies. Thailand's overall energy purchases from Russia will likely drop sharply in the coming months as companies find arranging finance from banks to buy Russian products ever more difficult.

Meanwhile, Russia is looking to boost its oil exports to India after a dramatic decline in interest for its oil among Western consumers since the country's invasion of Ukraine, Russian deputy prime minister Alexander Novak said March 10.

In other news, Indonesia's Balikpapan refinery continued operations after a fire at the plant the morning of March 4 local time, according to local media reports. The fire had been swiftly put out, the report said, citing the company. The company was investigating cause of the fire.

Pakistan's gasoline consumption growth is expected to hover at close to double digits over the next three years on rising auto sales, while gasoil demand will grow at around half that rate, despite the push toward cleaner fuels, CEO of Pakistan State Oil Syed Muhammad Taha told S&P Global Commodity Insights in an interview. "In the next two to three years, motor gasoline demand is expected to increase by 8% to 10% per annum owing to the significant increase in economic activity," Taha said.

"Moreover, another factor which would keep growth in line with expectations is the announcement of the new auto policy, which will bring different variants of automobiles into the market and hence increase sales," he added.

Taha, who is also the managing director of PSO, added that Pakistan's economic growth in the current fiscal year ending June 30 is expected to be around 8%, compared with 11% in the previous fiscal year, when growth rebounded from a lower base the year before.

"For high speed diesel or gasoil, we expect growth to be around 4%-5% over the next few years as it is linked with economic growth emanating mainly from the manufacturing and agricultural sectors," he said.

NEW AND ONGOING MAINTENANCE

UPGRADES

LAUNCHES

New and ongoing maintenance

New and revised entries

Asia-Pacific

** South Korean refiner GS Caltex plans to shut its 125,000 b/d No. 1 crude distillation unit at Yeosu for a one-month turnaround, traders said. The company also plans to shut its 66,000 b/d vacuum residue hydrocracker for maintenance, but details of the schedule were not known.

** Indonesian state-owned Pertamina's Balongan refinery is undergoing a large-scale maintenance since early March, the company said March 9.

** Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical restarted its 180,000 b/d crude distillation unit at its Mailiao refinery in February after the refiner shut the unit Jan. 27 due to a fire at a 36,000-b/d delayed coker on Jan. 21, company sources said. The refiner restarted the delayed coker early March, one of the sources said.

Existing entries

Asia-Pacific

** South Korean refiner S-Oil plans to shut its 240,000 b/d No. 2 CDU at Onsan for one month from early March for turnaround. In addition to the No. 2 CDU, the company also plans to shut its No. 1 residue fluid catalytic cracker with a capacity of 73,000 b/d for maintenance.

** Petron plans to shut its Bataan refinery in the Philippines from early second quarter for one month, a source close to the company said Feb. 21. "Should be early Q2, the exact date is not fixed yet ... having turnaround in Q2 for one month," the source said.

** South Korean refiner Hyundai Oilbank plans to shut its No. 1 CDU at Daesan for a turnaround over several weeks in April-May. It operates two CDUs with a combined capacity of 520,000 b/d -- the No. 1 with 160,000 b/d and No. 2 with 360,000 b/d -- at its Daesan complex. "The company will not shut the other CDU for maintenance this year so as to keep its crude run rate high as refining margins have been improving," an official said.

** South Korea's top refiner SK Innovation plans to shut its No. 1 CDU with a capacity of 60,000 b/d at its main complex in Ulsan on the country's southeast coast for a month between March and April 2022 for regular maintenance, a company official said. SK Energy operates the Ulsan complex that runs five CDUs with a combined capacity of 840,000 b/d: the 60,000 b/d No. 1 CDU, 110,000 b/d No. 2 CDU, 170,000 b/d No. 3 CDU, 240,000 b/d No. 4 CDU, and 260,000 b/d No. 5 CDU. SK Innovation has focused on raising utilization rates of upgraders to maximize profitability, the official said, noting that its 64,000 b/d No. 1 residue fluid catalytic cracker and its 90,000 b/d No. 2 RFCC were run at 90% in Q3, compared with 67% and 86% a year earlier, respectively, and 79% and 102% in Q2, respectively.

** New Zealand's Refining NZ said that work to prepare the site and staff at its Marsden Point refinery for the transition to a terminal is "well advanced." Marsden Point refinery will convert operations to an import-only fuel terminal Channel Infrastructure from April 1, 2022. In November, the company's board took the final investment decision confirming the change of operations to a terminal called Channel Infrastructure. It has previously said that in the months preceding the conversion it will focus on "the ongoing operation of our refinery" and the "safe shutdown and decommissioning of refinery assets." Separately, Refining NZ said in December 2021 that together with Fortescue Future Industries, it is studying the "feasibility of production, storage, distribution, and export of industrial-scale green hydrogen from Marsden Point." Work on the study will begin in early 2022.

** ExxonMobil Australia will integrate the common infrastructure between the Altona refinery in Melbourne and the new Mobil Melbourne fuel import and storage terminal over the course of 2022, with the conversion expected to be carried "over the next few years." The infrastructure that is not part of the future terminal will be safely decommissioned. The process of shutting down the refinery started at the end of August 2021 after the company announced its plans to close it in February 2021. Most facilities have been halted, but some parts of the refinery, including the flares and boilers, will continue to operate in 2022 "to ensure a safe site."

** BP Australia is undertaking a feasibility study on producing green hydrogen at the Kwinana refinery site. It will work on the project in partnership with Macquarie Capital and with funding from the Western Australian government. The company plans to repurpose the site as a clean energy hub, "which will include the production of renewable fuels," it said. BP also said it was "already underway with plans to develop a renewable fuels plant at the site, producing sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel." BP announced its plan to shut the refinery in October 2020, and wind down refining activities over the following six months. Refining activities were completed by March 2021.

India

** India's Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. is planning to shut its No. 1 CDU with a 120,000 b/d capacity, and an associated unit train for routine maintenance at its Mumbai refinery from mid-May, a company source said. The No. 2 CDU at Mumbai will continue to operate, although overall throughput at the refinery will be lower, the source said, adding that the plans were subject to the omicron variant not leading to a large spike in infections in India. A turnaround for around a month at a 10,000 mt/day diesel hydrotreater at the refinery is also planned from mid-July, the source said.

** India's Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals plans a short maintenance shutdown in the first quarter of the next fiscal year starting April 2022, company officials said. The refinery has no plans in place to carry out any maintenance till the end of the current fiscal year in March 2022.

** India's Kochi refinery has no plans to carry out any maintenance shutdown in fiscal year 2021-22 (April-March). The next maintenance shutdown will be for 30 days to carry out an annual turnaround, which is due every four years. The annual turnaround would be in the second half of fiscal 2022-23.

** India's state-run BPCL-owned Bina refinery in central India will have a planned shutdown in 2022. The shutdown will be for regular maintenance and comes after four years. "The duration and magnitude of the shutdown are still being worked out," said a senior official at the refinery.

** India's Reliance is planning maintenance at Jamnagar in Q3, according to trading sources. The maintenance was originally planned for March, but has been deferred.

Upgrades

New and revised entries

** Indonesia's Balikpapan refinery is in the process of building an RFCC unit, which is expected to be operational in 2024 and have a 90,0000 b/d capacity. In the first phase of the refinery upgrade, scheduled to be completed in 2024, the facility would see its total refining capacity increase from 260,000 b/d to 360,000 b/d. In the second phase, the refinery would have increased flexibility in its crude oil supply, enabling it to process sour crude with sulfur content of as much as 2%. The second phase is scheduled for completion in 2026.

** Pertamina's Balongan refinery is upgrading and aims to increase capacity to 150,000 b/d. It is also upgrading its residue cracking unit and expects to complete the revamp in 2022. The unit will have 83,000 b/d capacity. The project is expected to be completed in 2026. Pertamina will build the project in three phases. The first phase will raise refining capacity to 150,000 b/d by 2022, from 125,000 b/d currently. The second and third phases will increase the product yield from the refinery, including from the new petrochemical plant.

Existing entries

** Pertamina is carrying out upgrades at Cilacap, Dumai and Plaju refineries. Pertamina will go ahead and revamp its Cilacap refinery without Saudi Aramco, raising capacity from 348,000 b/d to 370,000 b/d. In May 2020, Pertamina and South Korean Consortium DH Global Holdings Co signed a memorandum of understanding for the upgrade of the Dumai refinery complex, with plans to increase the refinery's operating capacity.

** India's HPCL expects higher refining margins from its Vizag refinery on the east coast in 2023-24, after the completion of a residual bottom upgrade. Vizag refinery's modernization project, involving capacity expansion, will be complete by December 2022. The project is expected to be completed in March 2022, while the residual bottom upgrade has been set to be completed by December 2022. The capacity expansion project has been delayed by three years, mainly on account of the pandemic. The expansion aims to raise the refinery's existing capacity of 8.3 million mt/year to 15 million mt/year. The modernization project involves installation of primary processing units such as a CDU, replacing one of the three existing CDUs, a hydrocracker, and a naphtha isomerization unit. The initial deadline for the completion of the project along with a bottom-upgrade program was March 2020.

** India's Indian Oil Corp. will invest around $1.2 billion for a new crude pipeline system to connect the Mundra port on the west coast with its Panipat refinery in northern India. The proposed new pipeline system will have a nameplate capacity of 17.5 million mt/year. "The project is expected to be completed within 36 months, and would be synchronized with the commissioning of the Panipat refinery expansion project," IOC said in a regulatory filing in December. The project will meet enhanced crude oil demand arising from the capacity expansion of the refinery from 15 million mt/year to 25 million mt/year by 2025. The expansion project will be part of a petrochemicals integration plan for Panipat refinery. The expansion program includes an Indmax unit for deriving maximum value from the petrochemical molecule, a polypropylene unit, and a lube complex for producing lube oil base stock.

** India's Numaligarh Refinery Ltd. has finalized more details of the new diesel hydrotreating unit it will be installing as part of its multi-year expansion. Toyo Engineering Corp. said Dec. 9 that its Toyo Engineering India subsidiary had been awarded a contract by NRL for the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of 3.55 million mt/year diesel hydrotreating unit. The finalization of the details came on the back of the refiner saying in May it will use Honeywell's UOP technology to produce clean-burning diesel fuel in compliance with India's Euro 6 emissions standards, and increase crude oil conversion. NRL is undertaking a project to triple its capacity to 9 million mt/year. Axens will provide technical support and license a naphtha hydrotreating unit, continuous catalytic reforming unit, isomerization, and fluid catalytic cracker. The company was aiming to complete the expansion project by 2025.

** SK Innovation and Energy has selected Honeywell UOP for a feasibility study to retrofit the hydrogen plant at its Ulsan refinery with carbon capture. SK will "explore capturing and sequestering 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide" from the existing hydrogen production assets. From 2026, the CO2 will be reinjected in depleted natural gas reservoirs, Honeywell said. "With the global demand for hydrogen expected to grow significantly within the next decade, hydrogen producers need a low-cost carbon capture system to help them meet their sustainability goals," said Ben Owens, vice president and general manager, Honeywell Sustainable Technology Solutions.

** Indian Oil Corp. has received environmental clearance for a capacity upgrade project at its Mathura refinery. The capacity expansion project includes residue upgrade and distillate yield improvement programs. The upgraded crude processing capacity will be 11 million mt/year.

** India's Nayara Energy will complete the first phase of its petrochemicals expansion project, including the setting up of a 450,000 mt/year polypropylene plant, in 2023 at its 20 million mt/year refinery complex at Vadinar in Gujarat. Nayara, as part of its broader plan for its petrochemicals vertical, will set up a new propylene recovery unit along with upgrading the existing fluid catalytic cracking and LPG treatment units.

** Reliance Industries Ltd. has no investment commitment for any refinery capacity expansion plan at its Jamnagar integrated complex, company officials have said. Reliance has two refineries at the world's biggest refinery complex in Gujarat on India's west coast with a combined capacity of 68.2 million mt. Reliance has received environmental clearance for a capacity expansion proposal at its export-focused refinery from 35.2 million mt to 41 million mt. Reliance also applied for regulatory clearance for a capacity expansion proposal at its domestically focused refinery from a capacity of 33 million mt/year to 40.5 million mt. However, it aborted the proposal after marketing conditions changed.

** State-run Indian Oil Corp. has awarded an engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning contract to Paris-based Technip for its expansion project at the Barauni refinery in the eastern state of Bihar. The contract involves the installation of a 1 million mt/year "once-through" hydrocracker unit, a fuel gas treatment unit and associated facilities. The expansion project will raise its capacity by 50% to 180,000 b/d, and add petrochemicals such as polypropylene to its product portfolio. The initial plan for completing the capacity project was scheduled for 2021. But the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic may result in this being rescheduled.

** IOC-owned Bongaigaon refinery plans to raise its capacity to 4.5 million mt/year.

** IOC's Haldia refinery will launch a second catalytic dew axing unit with 270,000 mt/year capacity in 2023. The unit will produce advanced Group III Lubes Oil Base Stock. The unit is expected to be commissioned in January 2023.

** IOC-owned Gujarat refinery's capacity expansion project is set to be over by Sept. 30, 2024, a delay of one-and-a-half years from the previous deadline. The delay is mainly due to the pandemic. The initial deadline was for 2020. The existing smaller capacity atmospheric unit and vacuum units will be replaced by a large atmospheric vacuum unit. The project also involves a revamp of the existing hydrogen generation unit, a new n-butanol processing unit and a revamp of the linear alkylbenzenes unit. IOC plans to raise the capacity of the Gujarat refinery to 360,000 b/d by March 2023, from the current 275,000 b/d.

** IOC-owned Paradip refinery will install the first stage of a Grassroot Needle Coker Unit by using its own in-house technology. The proposed unit will have a Calcined Needle Coke production capacity of 56 kilotons/year. The company does not plan any expansion for its Paradip refinery, whose overall capacity is 15 million mt/year.

** French company Axens has been selected to provide technological support to Chennai Petroleum's 9 million mt/year Cauvery Basin Refinery project at Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu. IOC approved a proposal for a grassroots refinery project of its subsidiary Chennai Petroleum Corp. Ltd. at Cauvery basin, known as the Cauvery Basin Refinery. CPCL initially set up a refinery at the Cauvery basin in south India with a capacity of 500,000 mt/year in 1993, and later expanded the capacity to 1 million mt/year in 2002. Now, CPCL is expanding the capacity of CBR and as part of that, Axens will provide technologies for a Naphtha Hydrotreating Unit, Reforming unit (Octanizing), C5-C6 isomerization unit, and VGO (Vacuum Gasoil) Hydrotreater incorporating ZPJE spiraled tube heat exchangers technology.

** Pakistan's National Refinery is considering installing a continuous catalytic reformer to produce Euro 5 motor gasoline while reducing production of naphtha to zero. The project is expected to take at least four or five years to complete. It is continuing to study the possibility of a hydrocracker/bottom-of-the-barrel upgrade, aimed at upgrading fuel oil to value-added products. For the highly capital-intensive project of converting fuel oil into diesel and naphtha a joint project among Pakistan's five refineries is under initial consideration. A joint venture is being considered to carry out the project as it is not feasible for low-capacity refineries on a standalone basis.

** Pakistan's largest refiner, Cnergyico -- formerly Byco -- plans to convert the bulk of its fuel oil output capacity into producing gasoline and diesel meeting international Euro 5 standards, Chairman Mohammad Wasi Khan said in September 2021. Byco Petroleum typically produces 30%-40% fuel oil, or furnace oil as it is commonly called in the country, from each barrel of crude oil it refines. The product is mainly used by utilities for power generation. But furnace oil demand has weakened after utilities started using LNG, which is a cleaner alternative, said Wasi Khan. "Byco started development work to modernize its refinery by launching the Upgrade-I project at the start of this year which would be completed by 2025," he said. Civil work on the site and the arrival of equipment and machinery are underway, and the company is getting ready to install additional units. "Byco seeks to install 14 plants altogether, including fluid catalytic cracking and diesel hydro desulfurization units," Wasi Khan said. By the time it finishes, the company will have 19 plants at its oil refining complex.

This equipment will help convert the bulk of Byco's furnace oil output into Euro 5 compliant gasoline and diesel, and produce other high-quality fuels like jet fuel and kerosene. Meanwhile, Axens has been selected by Byco to support its upgrade projects Phases I, II and III. The scope of Axens' work includes "the supply of process design package for integration of three existing units into FCC gasoline hydrotreating configuration" as well as catalysts and adsorbents for the sulfur recovery unit and distillate hydrotreaters 2 and 3, and distillate hydrotreater 3 reactor internals. The start-up date of the complete Phases I, II and III is expected in Q2, 2024. Currently Pakistan's Byco refinery is rebranding under the name of Cnergyico Pk Ltd.

** Pakistan's Attock refinery reiterated in its latest financial report that it was in the process of upgrades, including of the diesel desulfurization unit. The Front End Engineering Design for the Continuous Catalyst Regeneration complex has been completed.

** Pakistan Refinery Limited plans to complete its upgrade in five years, phasing out fuel oil and moving to Euro 5 grade diesel and gasoline to meet international standards and government requirements for a cleaner environment, said Zahid Mir, managing director and CEO of Pakistan Refinery. Pakistan Refinery would be expanding its capacity, doubling to 100,000 b/d while at the same time converting to a deep conversion refinery from the existing hydro skimming, Mir said. Following the completion of upgrades and expansion, the production of furnace oil in Pakistan will be significantly reduced from the existing 30% of refining output, and will substantially increase the production of diesel and motor gasoline, he said.

** Pertamina will start producing biodiesel at its Cilacap Refinery Unit IV in December. It will begin to produce around 3,000 b/d of D-100 bbm, with an increased production of an additional 6,000 b/d of combined D-100 bbm and B30 biodiesel blend set to come on stream from December 2022. Units are also being built at Plaju refinery for an additional 20,000 b/d in biofuel production. Pertamina will use Honeywell UOP technology to produce advanced biofuels at Plaju and Cilacap.

** Indonesia's TPPI has laid out the next steps of its upgrading works at its Tuban refinery, setting 2024 as the target for the completion of its new olefin project. TPPI will also continue with its aromatics revamping project. The olefins project is slated for completion by 2024, while the aromatics revamping project will be completed by 2022.

** Petron Malaysia has been considering a plan to more than double capacity at its 88,000 b/d Port Dickson refinery in Malaysia to 178,000 b/d.

** Hengyi Industries has selected a flexicoking technology for a second time as part of its expansion project in Pulau Muara Besar. The Brunei refinery already started up a 1.1 million mt/year flexicoking unit at the end of 2019. Hengyi Industries has selected the technology for its new Phase II expansion project. The flexicoking unit, due for a start-up in June 2024, will upgrade 2.1 million mt/year of vacuum residue, FCC slurry oil and steam cracker pyoil into valuable distillates and flexigas. Hengyi Industries will use "advanced reforming and aromatics technologies" from Honeywell UOP for the integrated petrochemical complex in Puala Muara Besar, Brunei. The Brunei complex will include an aromatics block comprising CCR Platformer to convert naphtha into aromatics, as well as an aromatics complex to recover high-purity paraxylene from mixed xylenes. The latter will produce up to 2.3 million mt/year of paraxylene. The complex will also include naphtha hydrotreater and olefin removal process unit among others. In addition, UOP is providing VGO unicracking unit and diesel unicracking unit targeting maximum naphtha production. The first phase of the Pulau Muara Besar refinery envisages crude processing capacity of 8 million mt/year, while in the second phase, the refinery will add 14 million mt/year of crude processing capacity, bringing overall capacity to 22 million mt/year.

** A $4 billion clean fuel project is being undertaken at Thailand's Sriracha refinery. The upgrade is slated to be completed in 2023 and will increase the refinery's capacity from 275,000 b/d to 400,000 b/d, boosting the yield of cleaner products.

** Two separate consortiums have submitted bids for the engineering, procurement, and construction contract to build, upgrade and expand the Dung Quat refinery in central Vietnam. The upgrade will raise the capacity of Dung Quat to 8.5 million mt/year from current 6.5 million mt/year.

** Saudi Aramco and S-Oil signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on a $6 billion steam cracker and olefin downstream project at Onsan due for completion in 2024.

** ExxonMobil announced a final investment decision at its Singapore complex. The project includes an expansion aimed at converting "fuel oil and other bottom-of-the-barrel crude products into higher-value lube base stocks and distillates." Startup is set for 2023.

** Petron plans to expand and upgrade its Bataan refinery in Limay. There was no timeline for when the expansion will take place. The refinery's capacity will be increased by 100,000 b/d of condensates and light crude oils, from current capacity of 180,000 b/d.

Launches

Existing entries

** Malaysia's Pengerang Refining and Petrochemical integrated complex, also known as PRefChem, is expected to resume operations in Q2, possibly in May, according to market sources. Petronas has previously said it aimed for a restart in 2021. The refinery, also known as RAPID, had delayed its restart several times following a fire that broke out at the diesel unit in March 2020. The plant, part of the Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex at Johor in the south of the Malay peninsula, was launched in late 2019.

** Vitol's refinery in southern Malaysia's Johor state is not expected to be online before the end of Q2 2022, the company said Jan. 21. The refinery, whose construction started in 2019, was likely to be operational in Q4 2021, but there have been some minor delays.

** Mongolia is aiming to complete the construction of its maiden refinery project in 2025, according to a statement on the country's parliament website. Engineering work at the refinery in Dornogovi in the southeast of the country has been completed despite the disruptions caused by COVID-19. When the feasibility study was approved in December 2018, completion was expected for 2024, the statement said. It will have a 1.5 million mt/year capacity, with 66% of the output diesel and the rest 95 RON gasoline, LPG and jet fuel. The plant will cover 80% of the domestic demand for diesel and gasoline. Construction started in 2018.

** Flow Petroleum Ltd, a Pakistan-based oil marketing company, has signed an agreement with Al Ghurair Investments, a large investment group in the UAE, for 100% ownership of a 120,000 b/d refinery named Trans Asia Refinery. It will be set up on 200 acres of land leased from Port Qasim Authority, Karachi, Pakistan.

** India's proposed new 1.2 million b/d Ratnagiri refinery on the west coast is still facing delay due to "local issues." Construction at the site was expected to start in 2020, but there were issues relating to land acquisition which had stalled the project. The location of the project has already moved once, from Ratnagiri district to Raigad district. The refinery is now expected to be commissioned in 2025, according to industry sources.

** Pak-Arab Oil Refinery Limited will start physical works on its coastal refinery in 2021, after almost 13 years of delays. The refinery is expected to come online in 2025-26.

** Indonesia's Pertamina decided to postpone the construction of a proposed 300,000 b/d Bontang refinery in East Kalimantan.

** A Rosneft and Pertamina joint venture has signed a contract with Spanish Tecnicas Reunidas to design the construction of an oil refinery and petrochemical complex in Tuban, Indonesia. Primary processing design capacity is planned at up to 15 million mt/year, planned capacity at the petrochemical complex includes more than 1 million mt/year for ethylene and 1.3 million mt/year for aromatic hydrocarbons.

** Sri Lanka has approved a $20 billion refinery project at the port town of Hambantota. The announcement follows the inauguration of a smaller refinery complex at the port, which has backing from the Oman Oil Company.

** Indian Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd.'s proposal to invest $4.05 billion in an integrated refinery and petrochemicals facility in Balasore, India, has been granted approval by the Odisha state government.

** Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are in talks to develop a 200,000-300,000 b/d refinery in Balochistan's Gwadar district for $10 billion.

** A new HPCL project in Barmer, India, is due for completion by March 2023.

** India's refinery project in Maharashtra, being developed by state-owned IOC, HPCL and BPCL, will start up around 2022-23.