Refinery news roundup: Maintenance starting in Japan, Chinese plants cut runs

London — Refineries in Japan are starting or planning to start works while a number of refineries in China are either undergoing maintenance or cutting runs, partly to offset stock pressure after product demand slumped due to the coronavirus outbreak.

State-owned Sinopec's 264,000 b/d Guangzhou Petrochemical refinery in southern Guangdong province expects to export around 127,000 mt of oil products in February, down 17% from January, as it plans to cut crude throughput. "We have to cut the utilization rate as domestic demand fell obviously this month due to the coronavirus outbreak," a source said.

Sinopec's Jinling Petrochemical plans to cut its throughput in February by 26% to 1 million mt from its original plan 1.3 million mt, a source with the refinery said. As a result, its operation rate will fall to 60% from the original planned 78%. It has shut its 1.5 million mt/year FCC and a 600,000 mt/year gasoline hydrotreater for three months due to slow gasoline sales, S&P Global Platts reported previously.

State-owned PetroChina's 180,000 b/d Liaoyang Petrochemical refinery in northeastern Liaoning province, plans to export 120,000 mt of gasoil in February, steady from January, a refinery source told Platts Thursday. With the demand of oil products in domestic market decreasing drastically due to the coronavirus outbreak, the refinery also needs to cut its crude throughput this February.

State-owned China North Industries Group Corp., also known as Norinco, has cut its daily throughputs further to 77% of capacity, according to a refinery source. The refinery had planned to cut run rates to 80% of capacity, down from 100% in January, due to the coronavirus outbreak. Its sister refinery, the 2.3 million mt/year asphalt plant, also in Panjin, has cut run rates to around 60% from the normal operating rate of 100%.

NEW AND ONGOING MAINTENANCE, UPGRADES UPDATE

UPGRADES

LAUNCHES

NEAR TERM

NEW AND REVISED ENTRIES

CHINA

--PetroChina's Lanzhou Petrochemical Company in northwestern Gansu province shut a 1.4 million mt/year RFCC in mid-February due to weaker demand for oil products in the region after the coronavirus outbreak, a refinery source told S&P Global Platts. This will be the second secondary unit the refinery has shut recently, in response to the vanishing product demand. A 1.2 million mt/year gasoil hydrogenation unit has been shut at around February 4, according to the source. In addition, the refinery will also cut daily throughput to around 20,000 mt/daily, or 70% of its nameplate capacity.

--Dongying-based Tianhong Chemical has been preparing to start operations from end-February, a refinery official told S&P Global Platts. The refinery, which suspended operations around January 18 due to weak demand for oil products, has started to issue crude tenders. The refinery expects to buy about five Medium Range-sized crude cargoes, about 40,000-50,000 mt each, for March delivery, he added.

JAPAN

--Japan's largest refiner JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy said it planned to shut in mid-March its 65,000 b/d No.3 crude distillation unit at its Kawasaki refinery in Tokyo Bay for scheduled maintenance until late June. Currently, JXTG's sole 120,000 b/d CDU at its Marifu refinery in western Japan is shut until late March, undergoing a scheduled maintenance program. JXTG also said it had shut the 180,000 b/d Mizushima-B plant in western Japan indefinitely.

EXISTING ENTRIES

CHINA

--China's integrated Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery Co. cut its utilization rate to 90% from 108% and shut a 3.2 million mt/year reformer amid slow product demand due to coronavirus outbreak, a company source said. One reformer was idled for maintenance and there is no date to resume production, the source said. The refinery has three reformers, with capacity of 3.2 million mt/year each. The new refining and petrochemical complex started up in late May and had run at about 100% of its capacity since then.

--China's Sinopec Anqing refinery in central Anhui province plans to shut three units in February and cut its run rate to 55% from a planned 94% due to manpower shortage and reduced demand after thee coronavirus outbreak, a refinery source said. "The current throughput for February is 350,000 mt in February, falls from original planned 600,000 mt," the source said. The refinery has idled a 4 million mt/year crude distillation unit and a 1.4 million mt/year fluid catalytic cracking unit, the source said, adding it was also planning to shut a 1 million mt/year delayed coker in mid-February. Anqing refinery has two CDUs and three FCCs. While the above units are shut, it's now operating a 5 million mt/year CDU and two FCC with a total processing capacity of 2.7 million mt/year, according to the source.

--State-owned PetroChina shut its Guangxi Petrochemical in southern Guangxi province on February 9 for scheduled 50-day maintenance , a refinery source told S&P Global Platts. The maintenance should help the refinery to offset stock pressure after product demand slumped due to the conoravirus outbreak.

--Sinopec's Jinling Petrochemical plans to shut its 1.5 million mt/year FCC, and a 600,000 mt/year gasoline hydrotreater for three months due to slow gasoline sales, a source with the refinery said. Meanwhile, the refinery will also cut crude throughput in February from the planned 1.35 million mt.

--Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical will shut a 3 million mt/year CDU for maintenance over mid-February till Mid-April.

--Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical will shut its 3.5 million mt/year CDU and 3.3 million mt/year gasoil hydrogenation unit for maintenance over mid-March to early April.

--Sinopec Zhenhai Petrochemical will shut its 8 million mt/year CDU and 1.8 million mt/year FCC over mid-March to early May for maintenance.

--Sinopec Beihai Refining and Petrochemical will shut the entire refinery for maintenance over mid-March till mid-May.

--PetroChina's Dalian Petrochemical in northeastern Liaoning province will shut for an overall maintenance over March 25-May 25, for around two months.

--Sinopec's Yanshan Petrochemical will shut its 3 million mt/year CDU and 2 million mt/year FCC for maintenance over late March to early May.

JAPAN

--Japan's JXTG Nippon Oil and Energy Corp Monday shut the sole 120,000 b/d crude distillation unit at its Marifu refinery in western Japan for scheduled maintenance on January 20, a company official said. The turnaround will last until late March, the official said.

--Japan's largest refiner JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy has decided to terminate its refining operations at the 115,000 b/d Osaka refinery in western Japan and turn the facility into an asphalt-fueled power plant in October 2020, it said.

--Idemitsu Kosan expects its Keihin refinery in Tokyo Bay to remain shut at least until the end of March, having been shut since late December 2019 due to a fire, a company spokesman told S&P Global Platts. The fire started on December 24, 2019, near the 27,000 b/d coker at the refinery, which is operated by Toa Oil, part of the Idemitsu Kosan group. The coker and other related units were immediately shut and subsequently all other units, including the sole crude distillation unit, were closed over December 25-27.

UPGRADES

EXISTING ENTRIES

--Sinopec's 21 million mt/year Jinling Petrochemical refinery in eastern China will build a new 600,000 mt/year vacuum distillation unit, and reconfigure its No.3 gasoline hydrotreater to a 360,000 mt/year hydrotreater to produce RMG 380 CST bunker fuel oil with sulfur content no higher than 0.5%.

--Sinopec's 6 million mt/year Jingmen Petrochemical in central Hubei province planned to complete the construction of three units in 2019, including a 2.8 million mt/year heavy oil catalytic cracker, a 550,000 mt/year lubricant hydrogenation unit, and a 200,000 mt/year alkylation unit. The start-up of these units will help update the processing capacity at the refinery to around 8 million mt/year, from the current 6 million mt/year.

--Sinopec's Zhenhai refinery in Ningbo, eastern Zhejiang province, China, has issued four tenders for pre-construction works of its 1.2 million mt/year ethylene expansion project. The project also includes 15 million mt/year of refining capacity.

--Chinese independent refinery Haiyou Petrochemical has been building a new 1 million mt/year coker.

LAUNCHES

EXISTING ENTRIES

--China's Zhejiang Petrochemical Co., or ZPC, has successfully started up its 10 million mt/year No.1 crude distillation unit and most of its refining units, a key step to fully commission its 400,000 b/d integrated refining and petrochemical facilities. ZPC's No.2 CDU has been in commercial operation since late May. The company is gradually commissioning its secondary units connected to the CDU since then.

--Sinopec plans to start up its greenfield 10 million mt/year (200,000 b/d) Zhongke (Guangdong) refinery in Zhanjiang, southern Guangdong province in April 2020, a Sinopec refinery source said. Construction works at the Zhongke (Guangdong) refinery complex, which have begun since April 2018, are scheduled to be completed be December 2019, Platts reported earlier. The Zhongke refinery complex involves building a 10 million mt/year crude distillation unit, 4.2 million mt/year fluid catalytic cracking unit, 4.4 million mt/year residual oil hydrotreater, 2 million mt/year hydrocracker, 2 million mt/year gasoil hydrotreater, 1.8 million mt/year continuous reforming unit, 2 million mt/year light-hydrocarbon reclaiming unit and associated facilities. Besides, it also includes building an 800,000 mt/year ethylene steam cracking unit, 400,000 mt/year pyrolysis gasoline hydrogenation, 550,000 mt/year polypropylene, 350,000 mt/year high density polyethylene, 250,000 mt/year EO, 400,000 mt/year EG, 100,000 mt/year EVA, 180,000 cu m/hour coal-to-hydrogen units, a power station and other utilities and facilities.

--China's independent Shenghong Group has opened a trading office in Singapore ahead of the start-up in the second half of 2021 of its 320,000 b/d refinery in Jiangsu province. Shenghong's refinery will only have one crude distillation unit with a processing capacity of 16 million mt/year, which will become the single largest distillation unit in China.

--Saudi Aramco is boosting its downstream investments in China, creating a joint venture to build a $10 billion refinery and acquiring a stake in the greenfield Zhejiang Petrochemical refinery and petrochemical complex.

--PetroChina officially started construction work at its greenfield 20 million mt/year Guangdong petrochemical refinery in the southern Guangdong province on December 5, 2018. Trial operations at the refining complex are expected to start in October 2021.

--China's coal chemical producer Xuyang Group has announced plans to build a greenfield 15 million mt/year refining and petrochemical complex in Tangshang in central Hebei province.