REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: Strikes end in France, loom elsewhere

Refinery strikes were looming in Italy, the Netherlands and UK after recently ending in France after lasting more than a month.

** Workers at BP Rotterdam have begun a "work-to-rule" slowdown after the company did not respond to demands by labor unions CNV and FNV, which had given the company a Nov. 14 deadline in a dispute over pay, a union source said Nov. 14. The work-to-rule action could be followed by a full strike if BP did not meet the unions' demands, the source said.

** The Unite trade union said its members at the Fawley refinery in southern England would join strikes over pay first announced by members of the GMB union. Unite said its members were "set to take substantial strike action at the Fawley oil refinery in Hampshire later this month in a dispute over cost of living payments." Members would take industrial action between Nov. 21-26, and Nov. 28 to Dec. 3, it said. "The GMB union is also involved in the dispute," Unite said. Earlier, members of the GMB union based at the refinery and employed by mechanical contractors voted to strike between Nov. 21 and Dec. 2. ExxonMobil said the potential strike "involves staff employed by contracting companies on site." The company said it had "a large and flexible workforce" at Fawley and had "resource plans to cover a range of scenarios."

** Workers at Russian energy group Lukoil's ISAB refinery in Sicily will go on strike for eight hours on Nov. 18, according to the CISL and CGIL unions Nov. 12. The unions, two of Italy's largest, said their representatives were also scheduled to meet government and refinery representatives to discuss the future of the plant. The staff at ISAB will carry strike as part of a wider regional strike, with workers from Italy's other main union Uil will also be involved in the action, they added.

Earlier this month the refinery was told by the government that it would be able to benefit from guarantees to help it purchase non-Russian crude so it can continue operating after EU sanctions against Russian oil come into effect on Dec. 5.

** Staff at France's Feyzin and Gonfreville were the last to call off the industrial action in early November. The strike has been gradually winding down after staff at ExxonMobil's two plants -- Port Jerome-Gravenchon refinery in the north and Fos-sur-Mer in the south -- suspended the industrial action around mid-October, followed by staff at TotalEnergies' Donges refinery and its La Mede biorefinery. The Donges refinery has been operating through most of the strike, as its staff were the last to join the action. The plant had to be run in hot circulation mode for a few days but never halted operations, according to market sources.

Port Jerome-Gravenchon refinery in northern France has restarted all its units and returned to normal capacity, the company said Nov. 3. The restart of Fos-sur-Mer refinery was slightly delayed as it briefly paused due to an incident on Oct. 22.

In other news, oil companies continued reporting strong Q3 results.

** Greece's Helleniq Energy, formerly Hellenic Petroleum, reported "strong operating performance" in Q3 driven by strong refining margins and exports. Helleniq reported higher domestic sales "on the back of higher demand from aviation and bunkering." Its refining production was down 3% on the quarter at 3.841 million mt due to the maintenance of the Thessaloniki refinery, which "was safely and successfully completed, with all units currently in operation," the company said Nov. 10. The company also said the Thessaloniki maintenance led to lower throughput at its three refineries, which ran at a 98% utilization rate compared with 101% in the third quarter of 2021. The maintenance was completed in October. Throughput at the Aspropyrgos refinery totaled 1.861 million mt in Q3, while Elefsis processed 1.335 million mt and Thessaloniki 645,000 mt.

** Turkish Tupras's refinery output in Q3 totaled 6.964 million mt, down 1.9% on the month but up 0.9% on the year. Nine-month production was 20.064 million mt, up 11% on the year, with throughput of 21.191 million mt, 12% higher. Capacity utilization was 98% in Q3 and 94.2% for January to September, compared with 92.3% during H1 and 84.1% over the first nine months of 2021 when production and demand were still affected by restrictions due to the pandemic. Total sales for Q3 were 8.514 million mt, up 17% on Q2 and up 6.8% on the year. Tupras attributed the strong growth in domestic sales and exports to a sharp increase in demand for petroleum products in Q3 driven by the summer tourism season and increased mobility with limited supply reducing diesel stocks and pushing up prices. It said its expectations of production at its four refineries were unchanged at 26 million-27 million mt, with expected sales unchanged at 28 million-29 million mt.

** Hungarian MOL's Q3 refinery throughput was little changed year on year at 4.64 million mt, with works preventing growth despite significant fuel demand. Nine-month throughput was 12.7 million mt, also little changed year on year.

In the meantime, Spain and Italy reported rising refinery runs.

** Spanish third-quarter crude oil throughput increased 4% year on year to 16.5 million mt, or 1.34 million b/d, as downstream demand for fuel oil and kerosene, data from Spanish reserve corporation CORES showed Nov. 14.

** The average run rate for Italian refineries in the first eight months of 2022 rose to 78.2% of full 87.25 million mt/year capacity, from 70.7% in the first seven months of the year, data from industry group Unione Energie per la Mobilita, or Unem, showed.

NEW AND ONGOING MAINTENANCE

Near-term maintenance

New and revised entries

** Turkey's Tupras noted that planned Q1 maintenance on the crude oil and vacuum unit at its Batman refinery, on the vacuum and lube complexes at its Izmir plant, and on the isomerization, vacuum and desulfurizer units at its Izmit plant had all been completed. Planned works for the reminder of the year involved seasonal maintenance of the crude oil and vacuum unit lasting two weeks during Q4 at Batman; revamp of the crude, CCR and isomerization, and desulfurizer units lasting seven weeks during Q4 and of the HYC unit lasting four weeks, also during Q4, at Izmir and at Izmit, periodic maintenance of the crude oil and vacuum and HYC units lasting six weeks at the end of Q3 was reported as ongoing.

** All units were back in service at Denmark's Kalundborg refinery on Nov. 10 after maintenance, the company said Nov. 11. It carried out a routine shutdown starting Sept. 27.

** The UK's Fawley refinery "remains operational and there is no impact on fuel supply to customers" following an incident at a unit Nov. 8, ExxonMobil said Nov. 9. The unit, where the incident occurred at 4.40 pm local time Nov. 8 and resulted in flaring, has been put out of operation. "There were no injuries and there was no fire," the company said, adding it "will now work to assess the steps required to bring the unit back into operation". Meanwhile, the GMB union said that the incident occurred on the Catalytic Cracking Unit which is involved in the production of gasoline.

** Flaring was expected for a few days as the Scholven part of BP's Gelsenkirchen refinery in Germany restarted after maintenance, the company said Nov. 9. The refinery comprises the Horst and Scholven sites, with the latter accounting for around two-thirds of total capacity. Scholven has carried out works on various units since late July, including the Olefin 4 plant.

** MOL is carrying out minor maintenance works at the Danube refinery in Hungary in the fourth quarter, following a major turnaround that lasted from end-July to mid-September, MOL said in its quarterly earnings presentation Nov. 4. MOL said earlier the current round of maintenance would last from Oct. 9 until mid-November.

** The FCC unit at Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam -- formerly known as the Pernis refinery -- was fully back and operational, after restarting late October, according to market sources. The company declined to comment. It has previously reported flaring due to "a malfunction on one of our installations" on Oct. 12, and said on Oct. 13 that, after finding the "technical cause" of the malfunction, the unit had been taken out of operation. Subsequently, it said Oct. 20 that the unit "will be put into operation in the coming days." According to market sources, the malfunction occurred at the gasoline-making FCC unit. Separately, the refinery reported halting and restarting a unit in the week ended Oct. 28 without specifying the unit.

** ExxonMobil's Rotterdam refinery was back online after partial works, according to market sources.

** The FCC unit at BP's Rotterdam refinery is back after works, according to market sources Nov. 14. The unit was the last to come back after planned maintenance. The rest of the maintenance has largely been completed as of the end of October. The works started in September for a duration of around five weeks. The maintenance involved a CDU, FCC and hydrotreaters, according to market sources.

Existing entries

** Spain's Repsol will carry out two sets of maintenance in Q1 2023, CEO Josu Jon Imaz said. The Bilbao refinery will work on its hydrocracker while Coruna will take one unspecified unit offline, he said, without providing dates. The company will not carry out any more maintenance in Q4 besides the ongoing turnaround at the 186,000-b/d Tarragona due to be completed in the week starting Nov. 14.

** Croatia's Rijeka refinery will halt operations for five months between November and April 2023 it continues with its upgrade project. During the shutdown, work will be carried out on "connecting existing units with new systems," the company said. The company also said "several suspensions" of operations were planned for the duration of the upgrade project, in which it is investing more than HRK4 billion ($524 million), as "the refinery cannot operate continuously while work is being carried out" on the existing and new units. The refinery previously carried out maintenance between November 2021 and March 2022, during which it also modified the hydrocracker. The upgrade involves the construction of a new residue complex, which includes a delayed coker. Works on the new residue complex started in 2020 after a final investment decision in 2019. The commissioning of the new complex is planned for 2024, the company said.

** Planned maintenance is currently ongoing at Italy's Sarroch refinery, a company spokesperson said late Oct. 18, declining further details. According to trading sources, the maintenance is partial and could affect the production of middle distillates. Separately, Saras said it had postponed some of the maintenance it had initially planned for this year to 2023.

** Portugal's Galp has started planned maintenance at Sines which will mainly impact the fluid catalytic cracking and atmospheric distillation units, the company told S&P Global Oct. 14. The work began in "early October" and operations would be impacted for around 25 days, Galp said. The works will mainly affect the 35,000 b/d fluid catalytic cracking and the 225,000 b/d atmospheric distillation units, the company told S&P Global Sept. 26. The halt was previously slated for the fourth quarter.

** Repsol's planned maintenance at Tarragona centered on the fuel production units has been on track. It is either to be completed on Nov. 13 or Nov. 14, refinery director Javier Sancho said on a company video. The distillation and hydrotreatment units were halted Sept. 23 for work, inspection and other upgrades planned to last 53 days. Other areas of the industrial complex, notably the chemicals plants, have continued to operate normally. As part of the work, energy efficiency projects, including a new air preheater in the platforming unit and a heat recovery system in the distillation units, will reduce CO2 emissions by 32,500 mt/year, or 12% of the recent level. Effectively half of the work has been completed, Sancho said, and some units were restarting, with the fuel units and crude distillation tower seen back online last.

** A hydrodesulfurization unit at PKN Orlen's Plock refinery was halted after a fire which has killed two workers, the company said Sept. 27. The fire started after the residue (gudron) hydrodesulfurization (HOG) unit was restarted following maintenance, the company said. The company said the accident had not affected the refinery's operations. "Due to the fact that the incident took place at an installation that had been withdrawn from production and was being started up after maintenance, PKN Orlen's production units work without interruption...there is no danger to customer supplies as a result of the incident," PKN said.

** OMV Petrom will carry out a two-month general turnaround at Petrobrazi in the first half of 2023.

** Italy's Sannazzaro is planning some works starting from October to last into the part of November, the company said. The company has said previously the Hydrocracking-2 unit at the plant is offline, ready to be started when market conditions allow. The Hydrocracking-1 unit is currently operating normally. In recent months, the refinery has carried out partial works on the Hydrocracker-2 and other units, according to sources close to the refinery. The plant's EST slurry technology unit, which was taken offline following a fire in 2016, was originally scheduled to be reactivated after maintenance and fire restoration work was carried out on it some 18 months after the fire. Instead, it is being prepared to be placed in conservation, according to information provided by sources.

** Operations at France's Feyzin have been halted following some incidents in September, according to media reports and market sources. The refinery is expected to remain offline following a fire at a CDU furnace and a leak at the FCC unit in mid-September.

** Sweden's Gothenburg plant will have maintenance in the autumn of 2023.

** Germany's Lingen refinery will carry out a major maintenance in April 2023. Preparations for the turnaround, which takes place usually once every five years, are underway. During the maintenance, a vacuum column will be replaced.

** Shell plans to end crude processing at the Wesseling site within the Rhineland refining complex in 2025 as the facilities are repurposed for non-fossil fuel feedstocks and renewable hydrogen production. Shell outlined plans for the facility to take a variety of new biogenic and waste feedstocks, underlining no final investment decision had yet been taken, and crude processing would still take place at the adjoining Godorf site. The Wesseling portion of the Rhineland refinery accounts for half the overall refining capacity, or 8 million mt/year.

** The Gunvor Group said its Ingolstadt refinery in Germany will undertake projects focused on heating systems and exchangers "to continue improving its energy efficiency and reduce its emissions." A planned turnaround in 2023 will allow additional reductions, by carrying out projects on the FCC.

** Czech Unipetrol said that following the turnaround at its Litvinov plant in Q2 2020, the refinery has prepared production for a new four-year cycle. Thus, the next turnaround was due in 2024.

** 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.