Refinery news roundup: Strikes ease in France

London — Strikes, while still ongoing intermittently at French refineries and ports, have eased somewhat, with all refineries operating.

A French federation of port and dock workers, part of the CGT labor union, will decide on Tuesday about further action against the government's proposed pension reform.

There have been protests at most refineries and ports in France since December 5 over the reforms, with staff at refineries blocking product shipments and staff at ports suspending operations. Total refineries have been operating at reduced runs, around 60%-65% on average.

However, the industrial action appeared to be gradually easing at refineries, with no closed plants. Total restarted the CDU at its Donges plant, which has been halted as it was unable to obtain oil via the port of St Nazaire, where strikers had blocked access.

Meanwhile, the CDU at Total's Gonfreville remained offline after a fire mid-December with the restart likely to take months, according to trading sources.

Union sources said staff at Petroineos's Lavera refinery have been halting some units at the plant but the main units continued to operate as industrial action there has eased, with the plant shipping products by pipeline.

Separately, an explosion mid-January in the 140,000 mt/year ethylene oxide plant near Tarragona, Spain, owned by Spanish group Iqoxe has not had any reported impact on the nearby refinery operated by Repsol.

A fire at a flaring facility in the jetty area of Scotland's Grangemouth refinery was extinguished quickly and operations stabilized, a spokesman for joint venture partner Ineos said. The refinery facilities themselves were not damaged in the incident, which centered on the ground flaring facility designed to purge flammable gases.

NEW AND REVISED ENTRIES

--A unit taken offline at the northern Scholven part of BP's Gelsenkirchen refinery in Germany earlier this month has been repaired and was returning to operation, local media quoted the company as saying. The damage occurred in an electrical control cabinet connected to a compressor, though the affected unit was not central to the system and was minor, the company was quoted as saying. The refinery reported mid-January a flaring which was a result of a unit outage and that it would be aiming to bring the system back to normal operation as soon as possible. The facility failed after a technical fault, it said. The refinery consists of the Horst and Scholven sites, with Horst representing around one-third of total capacity.

--Spain's Petronor restarted the naphtha desulfurization units in plant 2 following planned maintenance. The unit was halted January 8, alongside the platforming 2 unit in the same plant, which has not been reported restarted.

--Maintenance at Portugal's Sines was expected to start in February, according to trading sources. Galp has said previously it was planning regular maintenance at its Sines refinery during the first half, namely in the 43,000 b/d hydrocracker unit, which should last for 40-50 days.

--The FCC at Italy's Milazzo refinery on Sicily, taken offline in October for a 45-day maintenance outage and which has been undergoing restart procedures since mid-January, has suffered issues with its return to operations, a source close to the refinery said. The topping unit 3 at the refinery was taken offline at the same time as the FCC and was restarted in December.

--Italy's Sarroch refinery in Sardinia will carry out heavy maintenance from March, with the plant expected to be offline for around two months, a source close to the matter said. The refinery was scheduled to carry out major maintenance in the first quarter including upgrades to its T2 and V2 units.

--A unit that Shell took offline in December at Pernis was up and running, according to traders. The company declined to comment. It said in early December that a unit was temporarily taken offline following a spill of crude oil. According to traders, a CDU had been shut down. The unit has been in restart since around mid-December, according to traders, though it took a while to bring it fully back.

EXISTING ENTRIES

--Spain's Castellon has two planned maintenances during 2020. The first, scheduled for May will last two to three weeks and affect two distillation units, the Powerformer 1 and the HVN, the company said. In November, a second maintenance is scheduled for two to three weeks, affecting one conversion unit (treatment plant) and the 1.4 million mt/year coker. A decarbonization program through to 2022 should see a reduction in carbon intensity of 25% compared to 2013 levels.

--Maintenance at the FCC unit at Norway's Mongstad refinery was ongoing, the company said recently. The refinery had been carrying out partial works in Q4 2019 although other units undergoing works have meanwhile restarted.

--Repsol's Coruna started a programmed halt in early January that will run to the end of March and will include the finalization of three CO2 emission reduction projects at the 1.7 million cu m/yr fluid catalytic cracker, among other work. Repsol will invest Eur64 million in the work. The work will mean halting six of the refinery's conversion units one by one. The projects will allow fuel savings and a CO2 reduction of 18,000 mt per year, Repsol said. Project G-52 will be directed towards energy efficiency and CO2 reduction, while G-53 will reduce the atmospheric particle emissions from the unit. At the same time, project G-54 will involve the installation of a new compressor in the gas recovery unit and the substitution of steam turbines for electric motors in both that unit and the FCC.

--Eni's Sannazzaro de Burgondi refinery has completed works that were being carried out on its Eni slurry technology unit, which was placed offline after damage from a fire and will initiate restart proceedings imminently ahead of becoming fully operational in March, a source close to the refinery said. Repair works on two EST plant units that were damaged by the fire have been ongoing since the fire in 2016 and have now been completed, the source said. The next phases will involve the pre-heating process, restart activities and then the move to full production, the source said. That will occur in the coming months, with the refinery EST unit likely returning to full operations in March.

--Gunvor has halted CDU1 at its Gunvor Petroleum Rotterdam refinery for economic reasons and also to prepare for an upcoming turnaround in March. The shutdown of the unit will not affect other units at the plant. The refinery has a 38,000 b/d and 50,000 b/d CDU units. The company said that following the turnaround "we will be building on synergies between our Rotterdam and Antwerp refineries to produce LSVGO".

--Tupras said two of its refineries were planning works in the fourth quarter -- Izmir at a crude distillation unit, hydrocracker and vacuum unit, set to last 2-3 weeks, and Izmit at a CDU and vacuum units for 7-8 weeks and at an FCC for 5-6 weeks. The company said in an investor presentation that it plans revamp of a crude unit and FCC modernization as part of its ongoing projects, without specifying further details.

--Lukoil's ISAB refinery in Sicily has been carrying out preparatory works at its Southern plant ahead of a planned turnaround. The works will last 6-7 weeks.

--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

NEW AND REVISED ENTRIES

--Two months of maintenance at the Sarpom refinery in Trecate, Italy, originally scheduled for October have been pushed back to 2021, a source close to refinery operations said. 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, according to the source.

EXISTING ENTRIES

--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 the spring of 2021.

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

--Finland's Neste will carry out a major turnaround in Porvoo in the second quarter set to last approximately 11 weeks.

--Total will invest Eur150 million at its Leuna refinery in Germany. The investment into an upgrade project aims to reduce the production of heavy products and increase the production of methanol, which is an important feedstock for the chemical industry. This will deepen the integration of the refinery and the petrochemical operations. Work will continue until 2021, with the major part done in the 2020 major shutdown of the refinery.

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

--Rompetrol's Petromidia refinery will have its next general maintenance in 2020.

--The next major maintenance at the Netherlands' Zeeland will be in 2020. The refinery started work in June 2018 on an expansion of the hydrocracker, by working to add the third reactor. The reactor will be connected to the existing installation in 2020.

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

UPGRADES

NEW AND REVISED ENTRIES

--Germany's Mineraloelraffinerie Oberrhein (Miro) will invest Eur300 million by 2021, with two thirds in new projects and one third for upgrading existing plants, local media reported citing the refinery's head Ralf Schairer. The investments aim at reducing costs and also increasing added value.

--Germany's Burghausen refinery is planning to commission a new ISO C4 system for the production of high purity isobutane in September, the company told S&P Global Platts. The delivery of the first column for the complex, which has been under construction since the summer of 2019, is due this month. The Eur64 million project is aimed at expanding the petrochemical part of the refinery in order to "secure the future of the site", Burghausen said.

--Serbia's Pancevo will upgrade the catalytic cracker, Gazprom Neft said Monday. 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. NIS has already worked with Lummus on the mild hydrocracker and hydrotreater complex, which was part of the first stage of modernization. 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. The refinery will also produce coke for use in the metallurgy and construction industry. Currently, Serbia imports coke but the Pancevo refinery output will cover domestic demand and also allow for some exports.

EXISTING ENTRIES

--Repsol has not yet confirmed if it had started work on a lubricants unit at the Cartagena refinery Ilboc plant alongside South Korean partner SKSol, after the environmental go-ahead was received at the end of November from the regional government. It will invest Eur300 million over the next four years increasing the capacity of the lubricants unit and increasing production of second generation biofuels. The first phase, the lubricants, is scheduled to start in 2019 at the Ilboc plant alongside Korean partner SKSol. The biofuels upgrade would take place at the nearby Escombreras facility, and will result in production of 250,000 mt/year of second-gen biofuel from around 2022.

--Greece's Motor Oil Hellas has awarded an EPC contract to TechnipFMC for the construction of a new naphtha treatment complex at its Corinth refinery, according to a TechnipFMC statement. Motor Oil Hellas said in 2019 that the new complex, which will contribute to increased production of gasoline, kerosene and hydrogen, is scheduled for completion in 2021. The complex with 22,000 b/d capacity will include three units: naphtha hydrotreater, platformer and isomerization, the statement said. It will allow the refinery to increase its production of Euro 5 gasoline.

--MOL said its Croatian affiliate INA has made a final investment decision to carry out a residue upgrade project at the Rijeka refinery. The project includes building the delayed coker, the renovation of existing refinery units, and the construction of a new port for the closed storage of petroleum coke. The project will be completed by 2023. INA will also go ahead with the conversion of the Sisak refinery into a bitumen production site and logistics hub, in line with a March 2019 decision. The facility may also produce lubricants and bio-fuel components too, subject to further investment decisions, MOL said.

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

--Repsol's Coruna will shut the calcination unit at the start of 2020 due to technological obsolescence. During the course of 2020, a new distillation unit will be installed to produce polymer grade propylene. The unit should come online by the end of 2020.

--PKN has approved a Zloty 1 billion ($255 million) project to build a visbreaking unit at Plock. The company said the visbreaker will allow the refinery to reduce fuel oil output and increase its production of distillates. It has previously said it aims to complete the new visbreaker unit by the end of 2020.

--Bosnia's Brod refinery will start production from the middle of 2020 by which time its reconstruction will be completed. The refinery is currently being reconstructed. A pipeline, currently 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 currently 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.

--Poland's Grupa Lotos said its EFRA modernization program was almost complete, with all units now commissioned apart from the delayed coking unit (DCU), which is undergoing testing. In September, the company introduced feedstock into the DCU and the unit was put into operation. The key elements of the EFRA project are the coking complex, comprising the DCU, coker naphtha hydrotreating unit, and coke storage and logistics facility. Other new units are the hydrogen generation unit, hydrowax vacuum distillation unit, and the oxygen generation unit.

--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 company plans to construct a hydrocracker at the site. 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).

--Germany's Schwedt is upgrading its aromatics complex. A second column has been delivered for the project which is planned to be carried out this spring.

--Swedish refiner Preem is "evaluating a potential investment in a residue hydrocracking plant" at the Lysekil refinery, it said. The investment would be aimed to "upgrade as much heavy oil as possible into sulfur-free gasoline and diesel fuels to help meet rising demand after IMO 2020," a spokesman said.

--The Netherlands' Zeeland refinery has had the third reactor for the hydrocracker's expansion delivered. The refinery started work mid-2018 on an expansion of the hydrocracker, by working to add the third reactor. The reactor will be connected to the existing installation in 2020.

--Germany's Rhineland has started the construction of a new hydrogen production plant, using electrolysis, at its Wesseling site. The Eur16 million investment project, due for completion in 2020, will generate hydrogen from electricity rather than natural gas, and thus also contribute to reduced CO2 emissions. It will produce up to 1,300 mt/year hydrogen when operating at peak rates. The 327,000 b/d 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.

--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. The construction, subject to a local planning approval, was set to begin in late 2019 with start-up expected in 2021.

--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.

--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.

--Total is considering building intermediate feedstock desulfurization units and a hydrogen unit at France's Donges, but the investment depends on rerouting a railroad track that currently crosses 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 currently 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

NEW AND REVISED ENTRIES

--Dutch Hes International (former Hestya Energy) aims to start operations at the LSFO plant at the currently closed Wilhelmshaven refinery in Germany in Q1 2020, it said. The Netherlands-based company had previously said it would operate the VDU unit under a tolling agreement. According to traders, the vacuum distillation unit will be used for producing low sulfur fuel oil to meet the 2020 International Maritime Organization requirement for low sulfur bunker fuel. ConocoPhillips sold the facility on Germany's North Sea coast to Hestya in 2011. The refinery has been idle since October 2009 when it was mothballed on poor margins after a maintenance program was completed on the site.

EXISTING ENTRIES

--Preliminary work for 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 which will process 1.6 million mt/yr shale oil and produce 1.5 million mt/yr products will help Estonia "to export fuel with up to five times less sulfur content than is permitted in the world," Hando Sutter, Chairman of the Management Board of Eesti Energia, said in the statement. 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.