REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: Minor works ongoing in Middle East

Maintenance is fairly light in the Middle East with some news emerging on refinery upgrades.

Oil product inventories at the UAE's Port of Fujairah rose for a fourth consecutive week as of Feb. 7, led by a 36% jump in stocks of middle distillates such as jet fuel and diesel, according to Fujairah Oil Industry Zone data shared exclusively with S&P Global Platts. Total stockpiles stood at 19.933 million barrels as of Feb. 7, up 1.7% on the week and extending the highest level since Nov. 15, according to the data provided to Platts since January 2017. Middle distillates rose to 2.529 million barrels, the most since Nov. 22. Middle distillates exports from Fujairah slowed for a third consecutive month in January, with average shipments for the month at 41,100 b/d, the lowest since May 2021, according to Kpler data.

NEW AND ONGOING MAINTENANCE

UPGRADES

LAUNCHES

New and ongoing maintenance

New and revised entries

** Maintenance at Bapco's Sitra refinery has been pushed back to the second half of 2022 due to the impact of COVID-19 on logistical timelines, according to sources familiar with the matter. "Sitra is fully functioning now, but schedules have changed due to COVID-19, they were originally planned for Q1 and Q2 before 2020 but they have been pushed to later in Q3 and Q4," a company source said. The refinery will conduct maintenance unit by unit throughout 2022 so as to avoid a full shutdown but in the second half the refinery will undergo a major shutdown expected to last as long as four weeks.

** Maintenance at Qatar Energy's Mesaieed refinery has been extended and it will be back online early March instead of February, according to market sources. The full refinery is undergoing maintenance.

Existing entries

** Syria's Homs is carrying out works on its CDU 100, paving the way for bringing it back online, according to the country's oil ministry. A fire broke out at the crude distillation unit 100 at the refinery on May 9, 2021, S&P Global Platts reported earlier. The refinery has been carrying out staggered maintenance. Homs completed maintenance work on the atmospheric distillation unit 21 in mid-January and also completed maintenance of the atmospheric distillation units 10 and 22 in early December. It has since carried out works on the delayed coker unit 11.

Upgrades

New and revised entries

** An isomerization unit that raised gasoline production at Lavan's oil refinery by 55% alongside a naphtha desalination facility went onstream Feb. 10, oil ministry news service Shana reported. "Gasoline production capacity in this refinery has reached 3.1 million liters/day from 2 million liters/day," managing director Mohammadali Akhbari said. The refinery plans to build a $20 million solvent production unit, and a $50 million new distillation unit. The two units would start construction within three months, the managing director said.

Iran plans to build a 150,000 b/d refinery to produce base petrochemicals along with other products in the Persian Gulf's Lavan island, oil ministry news service Shana reported Jan. 26 The managing director of the Lavan oil refinery, Mohammadali Akhbari, said the new refinery will be located next to an existing plant at the facility and will be built with private sector investment.

** Iraq's government decided at its weekly meeting held Feb. 8 for North Refineries Co to upgrade Haditha refinery and work directly with Honeywell, according a statement posted on state-run Iraqi News Agency. The contract will be a fast FEED one, the statement added. The government plans to build two units of total capacity of 20,000 b/d at the site, which will raise the capacity of the plant to around 35,000 b/d. International companies will be approached to bid for building an additional 35,000 b/d at the refinery, which will raise its overall capacity to 70,000 b/d.

Existing entries

** An upgrade project in Iran's Isfahan refinery is 28% complete, the National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution or NIORDC reported on its website late 2021. The optimization of process in the 81,000 b/d residue hydrotreating unit will cost Eur500 million ($566 million) to finish. "The desulfurization project in the residue hydrotreating unit of Isfahan refinery was initiated in July 2019 with the objective to increase the refinery's products and improve their quality on international levels and match environmental norms," Gholamreza Anvari, the project's director, was quoted as saying. "This project is currently in the phase of engineering and procurement. In the engineering and procurement, the project has made 66% and 21% progress, respectively and its general progress is 28%," Anvari said.

This project is due to go on stream by March 2025.

** Bahrain is planning a 2024 startup for an upgraded and expanded Sitra refinery that will allow its sole processing facility to handle new crudes, including heavier grades. The startup of the $7 billion upgrade and expansion of Sitra has been pushed back to 2024 due to labor shortage resulting from COVID-19-related delays, Mark Thomas, the CEO of state-owned energy company Nogaholding said in an interview.

The expansion will increase Sitra's processing capacity to about 370,000-380,000 b/d from 270,000-280,000 b/d.

** Three consortia including seven major international companies have submitted bids for the expansion of Jordan's Zarqa refinery. The capacity will be raised from 100,000 b/d to 120,000 b/d while the project is also aimed to improve the quality of oil products by reducing the output of heavy fuel oil which currently constitutes 20% of the refinery production, by converting it into light products. Jordan Petroleum Refinery Co. has awarded a contract to US engineering company KBR for the design of a new residue hydro-processing unit as part of its expansion of the Zarqa refinery.

** Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. is working on a crude flexibility project, or CFP, at its Ruwais refinery. Upon completion in 2022, the CFP will allow ADNOC to process up to 420,000 b/d "of heavier and sourer grades of crude oil" at the refinery.

** Iran's Imam Khomeini also known as Arak oil refinery signed in July 2021 a Eur290 million technological deal with the Research Institute of Petroleum in a bid to produce 90,000 mt of needle coke on an annual basis, upon launching a coker unit.

The move will help Iran with supply of the sanctioned material of needle petroleum coke. Sulfur content of the calcined needle coke will be up to 0.55%. "With preparation of tender documents and selection of the project's contractor by the first half of the next [Iranian] year (September 2022), it is predicted that the needle coke production at Imam Khomeini refinery becomes operational in March-May 2025," Gholamhossein Ramezanpour, managing director of the plant said. In addition to producing needle coke, the project will "cut down" the fuel oil production at the refinery from below 10% currently to zero. As a result of the upgrade, the refinery will produce Euro 4 and 5 gasoline and diesel. In 2019, the National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution Company and the state-owned Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation or IMIDRO signed an agreement for production of sponge and needle coke in Bandar Abbas and Arak refineries. Both refineries are building coke units.

** An approval by the Iraqi Council of Ministers is sought for a 17,000 b/d reformer and 31,000 b/d naphtha hydrotreater at the Basrah refinery, which will be part of the plan's current upgrade. The two units will be built by a consortium including the State Company For Oil Projects (SCOP) and the Czech company UNIS, with duration expected at 43 months. A 70,000 b/d CDU unit at Basrah is near mechanical completion. Once online, the unit will raise the refinery's capacity to 280,000 b/d.

Preparations have also commenced to start work on the FCC unit by the Japanese Contractor JGC. The project consists of a fluid catalytic cracking unit (34,500 b/d), vacuum distillation unit (55,000 b/d) and a diesel desulfurization unit (40,000 b/d). The project is scheduled to be completed in 2025. The project aims to convert the excess fuel oil produced by the existing refinery units -- 45% of the yield -- to lighter products.

** Iran's Abadan refinery has reported in July 2021 progress on its upgrade.

"The Abadan oil refinery stabilization and expansion is like a new refinery that stands beside the old Abadan refinery...and the old refinery will be renovated," Mohammad Rezaie, the National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution director for research and technology, was quoted by the oil ministry-run news service Shana.

The new plant includes all the processing units. The modernization of Abadan will provide high-quality, Euro-standardized diesel. According to Mehdi Arami, manager of the expansion and stabilization project, "one of other objectives of this project given its 360,000 b/d capacity is that the production of fuel oil will "lower from 40% to 25%." Meanwhile, production of regular gasoline and kerosene will increase 16% and 25%, respectively. The Phase 2 upgrade started in February 2017. Phase 2 includes building atmospheric and vacuum units, as well as gasoline, diesel and kerosene distillation units, a sulfur unit, and a catalytic cracking unit. Abadan, with 400,000 b/d nameplate capacity, aims to stabilize its throughput at 360,000 b/d.

** Ecomar Energy Solutions has agreed to expand its refinery and build new storage capacity at Fujairah. Refinery capacity will be increased to 62,000 b/d from 22,000 b/d currently, and inland storage capacity will be increased more than fivefold to 1 million cu m in the phase 3 expansion, which should be completed by the end of 2024. Ecomar's refinery will add an additional crude distillation unit, bringing it to 2 CDUs.

** The project to upgrade the quality of heavy products at Iran's Bandar Abbas was 40% complete.

Several units have been foreseen in this project including solvent de-asphalting, DAO purification, delayed coker, calcined coker, as well as downstream units such as for purification of naphtha and gasoil. Other units will produce and purify propylene, LPG, tar, hydrogen. Fuel oil production in the plant's basket will be cut below 10% and its sulfur will reach up to 1%.

** Iran's Persian Gulf Star's 420,000 b/d condensate refining capacity will be raised by 60,000 b/d.

** Iran will accelerate the expansion and upgrade of the Shiraz refinery. The expansion, which started in 2017, was due to be completed in three years but was slowed down due to sanctions. The first phase of the expansion and upgrade will involve upgrading the gasoline quality, with the second phase involving a diesel upgrade. An isomerization unit and diesel hydrotreater will be built under the project, estimated at $300 million. Shiraz has around 50,000 b/d current capacity.

The expansion will add 26,000 b/d.

** Following a major upgrade project, Iran's Tabriz refinery expects to reduce its fuel oil production. The refinery currently produces 4 million l/d (1.416 million mt/year) of fuel oil, which is primarily used as a feedstock for tar. By about 2022, the refinery is expected to reduce fuel oil production from around 25% of product output to below 5%.

** The Kermanshah oil refinery in the west of Iran plans to raise capacity by 15,000 b/d and upgrade its products output. No target date for the start or completion of the work was given.

** A gas condensate project is under construction in Iran as part of eight planned 60,000 b/d condensate refineries around Siraf, Bushehr province.

** There is a program in Syria's Ministry of Oil for the Homs Refinery to reach the highest possible production capacity.

** Iraq plans to rehabilitate and develop the Baiji complex north of Baghdad, where three refineries were damaged during the war with the Islamic State group.

Currently one refinery is operating at 70,000 b/d, a second 70,000 b/d unit and a third 140,000 b/d facility should become operational. The third refinery would take total capacity at the Baiji complex back to 280,000 b/d, making it again the largest facility in the country.

** Iraq's oil ministry announced plans to upgrade the country's 20,000 b/d Qayyarah refinery, with the aim of adding a second 70,000 b/d production unit that would take the total capacity of the plant to 90,000 b/d.

** Iraq has added another 10,000 b/d of refining capacity after completing the rehabilitation of a CDU at the Kasik refinery in the north of the country, the oil ministry said. Rehabilitation work continues at the refinery's other 10,000 b/d CDU.

** ENOC is currently undertaking a $1 billion expansion program to boost the Jebel Ali refinery's capacity to 210,000 b/d and meet Euro 5 emissions standards. It signed a contract with France's Technip in September 2016 for the engineering, procurement, and construction of a new 70,000 b/d condensate processing train.

** Saudi Arabia's Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Co. (Petro Rabigh) has awarded US-based Jacobs a contract to provide front-end engineering and design work, as well as project management consultancy, for a fuel oil upgrade project dubbed "Bottom of the Barrel." The refinery is in the process of launching the phase 2 expansion, which adds 15 chemical units in the Petro Rabigh complex.

** Saudi Aramco plans to complete a $2.5 billion clean fuels project at its Ras Tanura refinery.

Work on the clean fuels project at Ras Tanura started in 2018.

** Saudi Aramco has awarded a contract to KBR to provide technology, license, basic engineering design and equipment for its solvent de-asphalting for the Riyadh refinery residue upgrading and clean fuels project.

** US engineering company CB&I has been awarded a $95 million contract for the expansion and modernization of Sasref.

Launches

Existing entries

** Saudi Arabia's newly built full conversion Jazan Refinery Complex is currently in final commissioning and refining is at half its full capacity of 400,000 b/d, according to an article published in Aramco's weekly internal publication The Arabian Sun in late 2021. The refinery had previously been expected to be commissioned at the end of 2019 and be ready for full operations in the second half of 2020. Located in the far south of Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea about 60 km from the Yemeni border, the refinery has been a target of several missile attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen, though Saudi Arabian officials have said they intercepted all attempted strikes.

** Iran has launched the first phase of a 70,000 b/d extra heavy crude plant in the Persian Gulf's Qeshm island, state television reported Jan. 14. "This is the first extra heavy oil refinery in the country that in its first phase has a refining capacity at 35,000 barrels per day of extra heavy oil," oil minister Javad Owji said after the plant was launched by President Ebrahim Raisi. The primary product of the plant, built by Pars Behin Qeshm Oil Refining Co., is bitumen. Naphtha, kerosene and gas oil are added to the basket during the distillation process. Pars Behin is a subsidiary of the private Pasargad Energy Development Co. The refinery is fed by the offshore Soroush and Nowruz oil fields, said Saeed Mohammad, who is secretary of the Free Zones High Council. "The second phase of Qesham extra heavy oil refinery will be run by another 35,000 b/d. Its physical progress has reached 20%," Mohammad said.

** The new Al-Zour refinery in Kuwait started test runs in late 2020 and was expected to be fully online around May 2022, traders said. The petrochemicals complex at Al-Zour was due for completion in 2023, with start-up expected in 2024.

Separately, engineering and technology company Technip Energies has been awarded a "significant contract" for project engineering and management by Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC) for various potential projects at the Al-Zour complex, including the refinery, petrochemical complex, LNG import facilities. The contract is for the duration of six years. KIPIC is responsible for operating and managing the grassroots complex.

** Oman's Duqm refinery in the south is expected to come online in the first quarter of 2023, the head of project management at the facility told state-run Oman News Agency on Oct. 30, 2021. Construction of the refinery is 87% complete, Yousuf Al-Jahdhami told the agency. The refinery, which will cost more than $8 billion, has faced numerous delays since construction started in 2018.

** China's CNCEC will build a refinery and petrochemical complex in southern Iraq, the oil ministry in Baghdad said. The 300,000 b/d refinery will be built at the port of Fao on the Gulf, the ministry said in a statement. It didn't disclose when the refinery will start or what will it cost. The refinery will be offered under the Build Operate Transfer or Build Own Operate Transfer investment model, S&P Global Platts has reported previously. The petrochemical facility could be integrated into the refinery at a later stage.

** Brooge Energy Ltd. said in July 2021 that it had signed an agreement to sublease land to Blue Ocean Energy FZE over 20 years, on which it will construct a 25,000 b/d modular refinery in the UAE's Fujairah. Blue Ocean Energy will be responsible for building the refinery and financing the cost of construction, while Brooge will oversee operating the refinery and earning revenue from tolling fees on a take-or-pay basis. It will be focused on production of VLSFO. Brooge Energy has said previously it expects its 25,000 b/d refinery planned in the UAE's Fujairah to be developed, constructed, installed, and operating by Q1 2022.

** The Iraqi oil minister has awarded a consortium to build a new 100,000 b/d refinery in the Dhi Qar province. The original project envisaged a 300,000 b/d plant, but this was later reduced to 150,000 b/d and subsequently to 100,000 b/d. The refinery is expected to be built with integrated production units such as a fluid catalytic cracking unit and a catalytic reforming unit and will be able to produce refined oil products that meet Euro 5 grade specifications, as per the statement.

** Iraq expects to gradually commission the greenfield Karbala refinery in Q1 2022. The refinery will include 35 units and 44 storage tanks. Plans are also underway to build a new 70,000 b/d refinery in Qayara, near the Qayara oil field in the north. Besides these projects, the oil ministry is seeking to encourage investors to finance "investment refineries," in several locations, including Zubair and Fao in the south. Iraq is in talks with Eni to build a 300,000 b/d refinery near the Zubair oil field operated by the Italian company in the southern part of the country.

The first phase of the project includes commissioning 150,000 b/d by 2025.

** Iraq aims to build a new refinery in Basrah province.

** Iraq's oil ministry is seeking investors for a 100,000 b/d refinery in Wasit province, a 70,000 b/d refinery in Samawa province and a 70,000 b/d refinery in Kirkuk. It has also added a 70,000 b/d site at Diwaniya, in Qadisiya province, south of Baghdad, a new 150,000 b/d project to be built in the west Anbar province. Work has yet to start on the 150,000 b/d Missan refinery.

** Angola's state-owned oil company, Sonangol, is working with Iraq's ministry of oil to build a complex refinery in Mosul. The discussions between Sonangol and the ministry are for a refinery with a capacity of 100,000-150,000 b/d of complex products.

** Canada's Pacific Future Energy has been awarded a contract to build a 150,000 b/d refinery outside the southern Iraqi town of Nassiriya.

** Canada Business Holdings' 300,000 b/d ultra low sulfur fuel oil refinery project at Duqm, Oman, will process residue from OQ and Kuwait Petroleum International's 230,000 b/d Duqm refinery project, CBH CEO Moses Solemon said. "The CBH refinery complements the Oman-Kuwait refinery. Therefore, we are in synergy and not in competition," Solemon told S&P Global Platts. The company is targeting the end of 2023 for the refinery to process its first batch of products. The plant will use technology that reduces sulfur emissions.

** Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya has started construction work on a 120,000 b/d plant to process gas condensate from the offshore South Pars gas field.

** Iran is aiming to start construction of the Anahita oil refinery in the western province of Kermanshah designed to process 150,000 b/d of crude oil.

** Kuwait may add a new refinery in the south of the country, which could add 130,000-160,000 b/d of capacity.