REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: Maintenance, run cuts continue as European lockdowns ease

Maintenance and run cuts were continuing at European refineries even as some countries were gradually easing restrictions to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Eni has been seeing an uptick in fuel demand in Italy from lows during March when the country's lockdown hit pump sales by up to 80%, CEO Claudio Descalzi said.

"We think, by the end of May, the critical phase is finished and we will start gradually to recover the consumption and go to a possible normal situation by the end of the year."

--ExxonMobil's French sites Gravenchon and Fos and some inland German refineries including Miro have cut runs. Meanwhile Gravenchon has begun to halt some units.

--France's Feyzin and Grandpuits have not restarted after maintenance.

--Eni said in April its refineries in Italy were running at around 60% of capacity. It is operating the Livorno, Sannazzaro and Taranto plants. According to local media, the Sannazzaro refinery in the north was running at an average 50% of capacity. The Taranto refinery in southern Italy was running at approximately 65%. Meanwhile, at the end of April, Eni said Livorno was operating normally, with both of its lubricant production lines in operation. The refinery's operating program for May foresees both lines operating as usual.

--Eni said Q1 throughput on its own account at its refineries in Italy fell 18% year on year in the first quarter to 4.06 million mt, "due to lower volumes processed at the Taranto and Sannazzaro refineries as a result of higher maintenance activities and at Livorno due to negative scenario effects". Overall throughput was up 13% at 6.03 million mt due to "higher throughputs at the Bayernoil refinery, following the re-entry into operations of the topping unit at the Vohburg plant".

--API's refinery in the Italian coastal town of Falconara Marittima has gone fully offline and has been carrying out works on its distillation column after a technical issue. Sonatrach's Augusta plant was running at 70%-80% of capacity. The Milazzo refinery on Sicily has reduced output to 60% of capacity and has also placed its FCC plant offline and reduced the output of its gasoline production units. ISAB will likely postpone its plans to carry out maintenance and upgrades over March-April. A two-month maintenance at the Sarroch refinery began in March and is expected to last until end May. Meanwhile, the Sarroch plant is currently only operating two of its three distillation units and running at around 60%.

--Italian refineries, on average, reduced output volumes in March by 20% year on year as a result of the slump in demand, producing some 1 million mt less and bringing average refinery operations to around 60% of total capacity, the chief of oil association Unione Petrolifera told S&P Global Platts. Oil product demand will have contracted further still in April, with initial Unione Petrolifera estimates pointing to a drop in gasoline sales of more than 75%, and diesel sales by over 50%, Claudio Spinaci said in an interview. Gasoline and diesel volumes "practically halved, whilst jetfoil collapsed almost 70%" in March, Spinaci said. The drop in demand has forced some Italian refineries to go offline to carry out maintenance works ahead of schedule, Spinaci said. Other plants have reduced their operations to technical minimums, Spinaci said.

--In Spain, refinery operators have trimmed rates to meet demand, while the Coruna refinery, due to return from a regular maintenance in March is still offline. Spanish gasoline demand fell 35% year on year in March to its lowest monthly total since February 1973. Diesel demand in March fell 25% year on year to 1.49 million mt - its lowest monthly total since February 2002 -- while kerosene demand fell 44% 297,000 mt -- the lowest since November 2002. Bucking the trend, LPG demand in March increased 18% to 246,000 mt, with demand unaffected, if not boosted, by the COVID-19 health measures.

--Galp has temporarily suspended fuel production at the Matosinhos refinery in Portugal, and temporarily suspended operations at its larger Sines refinery for around a month from May 4.

--In the Netherlands, Gunvor postponed the start of planned work at its Rotterdam site, and subsequently the restart of one of the two CDUs. Finland's Neste has also deferred planned maintenance. Norway's Mongstad, has decided to postpone maintenance work originally scheduled to take place in May. Germany's Heide Raffinerie has been postponed planned maintenance for six months due to the coronavirus outbreak.

--The Netherlands' Pernis brought its maintenance forward to mid-April.

--Germany's Schwedt will go ahead with planned maintenance.

--ExxonMobil's refineries in the UK and the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp hub have put business continuity plans in place to deal with potential disruption.

--Israel's Bazan, which operates the Haifa refinery, said that due to lower demand for gasoline, it has reduced the volumes of gasoline it imports. In addition, Bazan said it had managed to "divert some of the diesel quantities from the domestic market to the export markets in which it operates and also made adjustments in production volumes to meet demand levels."

--Hungary's MOL said its three refineries, in Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia were running at reduced rates.

--Turkey's Izmir refinery in Aliaga will suspend production as of May 5, as a result of the "negative impact of the global COVID-19 outbreak on petroleum products demand" and variable commercial conditions in domestic and international markets, owner Tupras said. Production at the Izmir refinery, which accounts for 40% of the company's crude processing capacity, will be gradually ramped down before being halted completely on May 5. Tupras said it expected to restart production on July 1. Meanwhile, Socar is maintaining full production levels at its STAR refinery at Aliaga in Turkey, although with an altered product portfolio. Turkish demand for diesel during the first 26 days of April declined sharply due to the coronavirus pandemic, energy ministry data showed. The weekly published data showed diesel demand for the period was 829 million liters, down 34% from the same period in 2019. Gasoline demand over the same period was 98 million liters, down 47%.

--Austrian company OMV said it expected the utilization rate at its European refineries to be around 80% this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on oil product demand. Currently it is running its European refineries, Schwechat in Austria, Burghausen in Germany and Petrobrazi in Romania, at around 80% utilization due to significant decline of oil products demand. The company's previous expectations were for a 95% utilization rate in 2020, from 97% in 2019.

Separately, Eni's Porto Marghera biodiesel refinery in Venice has taken units offline so as to be able to carry out the substitution of its catalyzers.

Near term maintenance

New and revised entries

--Some scheduled maintenance at Austria's Schwechat and Romania's Petrobrazi will be postponed to June and Q3, with the Petrobrazi maintenance set to take place at the end of July, OMV said.

--The Sarroch plant in Sardinia is operating two of its three distillation units, its electricity production is down to about two-thirds of total capacity and its gasoline production levels are low amid slumping general demand for refined products due to the coronavirus crisis, a source close to the refinery said. The refinery is carrying out planned maintenance in the plant's topping V1 unit and on the FCC gasoline production plant. The maintenance is expected to end at the end of May, traders said. Sarroch started a two-month maintenance cycle in March. At the time, Saras, which owns the refinery, announced Sarroch's fluid catalytic cracker, alkylation unit, topping 1 plant were undergoing works. Saras also said routine maintenance would be carried out on its MHC2 unit, its visbreaking plant and its U400 and U500 units as part of the maintenance cycle.

--Valero Energy said second-quarter planned works at its plant in Pembroke, Wales, will lead to reduced rates. Valero said that second quarter planned work at its two non-US refineries -- the 235,000 b/d Quebec City refinery and the 270,000 b/d Pembroke, UK, plant -- will reduce throughput to between 315,000 b/d and 335,000 b/d, without providing data for each of the two refineries. The company also said that it expects to run its refinery system at about 70% of capacity in the second quarter of 2020 as it seeks to strike a balance between supply and demand.

--API's refinery in the Italian coastal town of Falconara Marittima is carrying out works on its distillation column after a technical issue arose at the unit, and expected to resolve the problem before the plant restarts in the near future, a source close to the refinery told S&P Global. The refinery went fully offline at the start of April after starting to wind down operations in March in a bid to offset a decline in demand for refined products in Italy caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

--Turkey's Izmir refinery in Aliaga will suspend production as of May 5, as a result of the "Negative impact of the global COVID-19 outbreak on petroleum products demand", owner Tupras said. Tupras said that production at the Izmir refinery, which accounts for 40% of the company's crude processing capacity, will be gradually ramped down before being halted completely on May 5. The company stated that it anticipates restarting production on July 1. In its latest financial report, Tupras said that the refinery plans works on the continuous catalytic reformer for seven weeks in Q4, on the isomerization unit for eight weeks in Q4 and on the MQD diesel desulfurization unit for seven weeks in Q4. Tupras said in an investor presentation that three of its four refineries are planning works over the course of 2020. Work on the crude oil and vacuum unit at Batman is set to last five weeks over Q1 and Q2 and work on the desulfurizer at Izmit will last seven weeks over the fourth quarter.

--Maintenance at Germany's Schwedt is implementing all required hygiene and safety measures to prevent coronavirus spread, it said. The refinery is undergoing its planned spring shutdown. Local media reported previously that the turnaround would involve works on the visbreaker, high conversion cracking (HSC) and diesel hydrotreater units, which will be carried out between April 23 and the end of May.

--Eni's Sannazzaro de Burgondi refinery in northern Italy started another cycle of maintenance and upgrade works, even as a decision on when to reactivate its Eni slurry technology (EST) unit, which has been offline since a 2016 fire, is still outstanding and not expected to be taken before demand for refined products picks up, according to a source close to the refinery. "The planned maintenance activity is ongoing according to the scheduled programs, and will be completed by the end of May," a spokeswoman for Italian oil giant Eni said. No information was provided on which plants were involved in the maintenance and upgrade works, nor when the EST plant would be restarted. The works being carried out are not the series of works planned for the EST unit that had previously been suspended, the source said. The refinery underwent maintenance in early March involving "units internal to the refinery," an Eni spokesperson said at the time. The work has been completed, the source said.

--Finland's Neste said its Porvoo refinery's major turnaround has been postponed to 2021 and would be carried in phases. The company had planned works for the second quarter of this year, but had to postpone them due to the coronavirus pandemic. Only critical maintenance work can be carried out over April–June.

Existing entries

--Germany's Leuna is preparing for a general maintenance as well as the start of upgrade in the autumn of 2020, due to last between four and six weeks, according to local media reports and trading sources. The maintenance would involve works on replacing six reactors and building a new cooling system. Work would also continue in 2021 and by the end of next year the project will be completed. Total said in 2019 that it would invest Eur150 million ($166.5 million) in the refinery over 2020-21 to reduce production of heavy products as demand decreases, and increase production of methanol, an important feedstock for the chemical industry. The project will deepen the integration of refining and petrochemical operations and increase the competitiveness of the plant, Total said. Methanol production will increase by 20% as a result of higher output from the visbreaker unit and an upgrade of the POX/methanol plant. Work will continue until 2021, with the bulk carried out in a major shutdown of the refinery in 2020, which will also cost around Eur150 million.

--Shell's Pernis refinery in the Netherlands said in mid-April it was ready to start its scheduled maintenance. The company previously said it was going to start works in mid-April, bringing them forward from the original plan for maintenance to start May 4 through June. Extra precautions have been taken to prevent the coronavirus spread, the refinery said, including working 1.5 meters apart and in small teams.

--ExxonMobil's Gravenchon refinery halted some units between April 12-18, it said on the AlloIndustrie site. The company said in late March that throughput at its two French refineries, Gravenchon and Fos, has been reduced "to adapt to the decreasing French demand during the COVID-19 pandemic".

--Galp will temporarily suspend operations at its larger Sines refinery for approximately one month from May 4, having already cut output at its smaller Matosinhos refinery, the company said.

--Italy's ISAB refinery in Sicily will likely postpone its plans to carry out maintenance and upgrades over March-April because of the nationwide lockdown in Italy, which bans all but the most essential activities to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

--Norway's Mongstad will postpone works initially planned on its crude unit May 13 to June 2, the company said.

--A programmed halt between January and the end of March, which included the finalization of three CO2 emission reduction projects at the 1.7 million cu m/year fluid catalytic cracker among other work, was ongoing in early April at Spain's Coruna, the company said.

--The restart of France's Grandpuits refinery has been delayed due to reduced demand. The refinery halted production at the start of March for maintenance at some units. The restart has been delayed with only partial operations going on.

--Gunvor said it has decided to delay the turnaround at its Rotterdam refinery. "The unpredictable spread of COVID-19, in combination with regulations and strict safety measures, have resulted in a situation that makes it impossible to perform the originally planned work in a way that ensures the health and safety of all those involved in this complex and critical work, as we would be welcoming more people on site," it said. The company was working to determine the timeframe of the turnaround. Gunvor halted CDU1 in November for economic reasons and also to prepare for an upcoming turnaround in March, it said previously.

--Petronor said at Bilbao it has taken offline its 2 million mt/year coker unit and related units for an unscheduled maintenance halt. The unit was recently taken offline in February for a scheduled maintenance. The refinery also halted the visbreaking unit of plant 3 during April 6.

--Planned maintenance at France's Feyzin refinery was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. The petrochemical part of the plant was operating normally, a source said. Work at Feyzin started on February 14 and was due to last around seven weeks, Total said previously.

--Repairs on a CDU that went offline at Gonfreville in mid-December following a fire had been halted due to the coronavirus pandemic, with only a few units that produce road fuels still in operation, a source said. Total said previously that the CDU, which was damaged in December following a fire at a pump feeding crude oil, will restart before the end of the year.

--Sonatrach's Augusta refinery, Sicily, had routine maintenance scheduled for its reformer in the next few months involving the planned substitution of the unit's catalyzers, sources close to the refinery told Platts. Augusta plant is running at 70%-80% of its full capacity.

--Romania's Petromidia is carrying out scheduled maintenance between March 13 and April 30. Separately, the Vega speciality site will also reduce runs for turnaround work due to the reduction in feedstocks delivered from Petromidia.

--Greek refiner Hellenic said it will carry out works on its Aspropyrgos refinery in Q3 2020.

--The Netherlands' Zeeland refinery in Flushing is expected to start its planned maintenance around May, according to sources. During the maintenance it is expected to complete the upgrade of its hydrocracker. The refinery received last summer the third reactor for the hydrocracker's expansion. It started work in June 2018 on the expansion which includes adding a third reactor. The reactor will be connected to the existing installation in 2020.

--Spain's Castellon has two planned maintenance periods during 2020. The first, scheduled for May will last two to three weeks and affect two distillation units, the Powerformer 1 and the HVN. 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.

--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

--Germany's Heide Raffinerie has been postponed planned maintenance for six months due to the coronavirus outbreak. The planned turnaround would have taken a quarter of its capacity offline.

--Finland's Neste said in its Q1 report that its Porvoo refinery's major turnaround in 2020 is now postponed to 2021 and would be carried in phases. The company had planned works for the second quarter of this year, but had to postpone them due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Existing entries

--The next large-scale maintenance at France's Grandpuits will be in 2021. The works will include cleaning and repair of units, as well as works to improve performance. Works are planned to take place in Q1, 2021, Total said.

--Germany's Mineraloelraffinerie Oberrhein (Miro) will carry out a major turnaround in 2021. It will invest Eur300 million ($333 million), with two-thirds going on new projects and a third for upgrading the existing plants during the turnaround.

--Lukoil's Neftochim refinery in Burgas, Bulgaria, is planning a major turnaround in 2021. The refinery typically carries out works around February-March.

--Two months of maintenance at the Sarpom refinery in Trecate, Italy, originally scheduled for October 2019 have been pushed back to 2021. 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.

--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 spring 2021.

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

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

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

Upgrades

New and revised entries

--Valero said the cogen project at Pembroke, UK, has been slowed down, "pushing out" the mechanical completion by 6-9 months.

--Germany's Heide refinery is looking to cut its carbon dioxide production for its industrial operations using grey hydrogen for refined products desulfurization, and from early 2019 green hydrogen has been added to the mix for feedstock purposes. "The goal is to have a 700 MW of electrolysis capacity installed by 2030, this would be enough to abate 1 million mt of CO2 per year by producing 100,000 mt of hydrogen ... and this is only at our facility," said Wollschlaeger. To achieve its ambitions, Heide is part of the "Westkuste 100" consortium that includes EDF, Orsted, Stadtwerke Heide, Thuga and thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions, which have teamed up to advance the use of green hydrogen for industrial purposes. The consortium submitted a proposal in early 2019 to the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy to seek funds for the project. The outcome is expected to be known by the middle to end of 2020.

Existing entries

--Germany's Leuna is preparing for a general maintenance as well as the start of upgrade in the autumn of 2020, due to last between four and six weeks, according to local media report and trading sources. The maintenance would involve works on replacing six reactors and building a new cooling system. Work would also continue in 2021 and by the end of next year the project will be completed. Total said in 2019 that it would invest Eur150 million ($166.5 million) at its Leuna refinery in Germany over 2020-2021 to reduce production of heavy products as demand decreases, and increase production of methanol, an important feedstock for the chemical industry. The project will deepen the integration of refining and petrochemical operations and increase the competitiveness of the plant, Total said. Methanol production will increase by 20% as a result of higher output from the visbreaker unit and an upgrade of the POX/methanol plant. Work will continue until 2021, with the bulk carried out in a major shutdown of the refinery in 2020, which will also cost around Eur150 million.

--Romania's Petromidia is planning to build a diesel dewaxing unit "which will allow the refinery to significantly improve the process of obtaining diesel fuels in the wintertime," the company said in a statement. Dewaxing units are used for the production of winter grade diesel. The integration of the new dewaxing unit will also "allow an increase in the production of aviation jet fuel," it said. The project has estimated completion in September 2022. Separately, a second project is aimed at the increase by more than 30% of the production of polymers in the petrochemical division of Petromidia, which is "the sole producer in Romania in this field".

--Poland's largest refiner PKN Orlen said it has completed the main part of its polyethylene 3 (PE3) investment at the Litvinov refinery in the Czech Republic. Unipetrol will build a pyrolytic unit for waste-plastic processing at its plant in Litvinov. Separately, 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.

--A new diesel hydrodesulfurization unit at France's Donges was expected to come online in 2023, Total said. Construction of the HDT-VGO units, which had been awarded to Kinetics Technology, will go ahead alongside a rail bypass which was the main requirement for the refinery's upgrade to proceed. Kinetics Technology said it had been awarded the contract for building the 40,000 b/d hydrotreater. The French government, local authorities, railway operator SNCF and Total signed a memorandum of intent in 2016 to build the railroad track bypassing the Donges refinery. Total said previously that, following the bypass agreement, it would proceed with the planned upgrade. The bypass will be ready in 2022.

--Greece's Motor Oil Hellas said that in 2020 it expected high capital expenditure "as the project of the new naphtha treatment complex [total budget Eur310 million] has already entered the construction phase." MOH said in 2019 that the new complex, which will contribute to increased production of gasoline, kerosene and hydrogen, is scheduled for completion in 2021. In January, the company awarded an EPC contract to TechnipFMC for the construction of a new naphtha treatment complex at its Corinth refinery, according to a TechnipFMC statement. The 22,000 b/d complex comprises a naphtha hydrotreater, a platformer and an isomerization unit, the statement said.

--Turkish refiner Tupras' upgrade plans for its four refineries include a number of new units as well as works for modernizing existing ones. The company has opened an EPC tender valued at around $400 million for the construction of new sulfur units at its three main refineries, Izmit, Izmir and Kirikkale. Tupras has also signed a $66 million tender for the revamp of the FCC unit at Izmit, which will include the installation of flue gas treatment and energy back recovery systems. Installation work is set to start this year and complete in 2021. Work had already started on a $3.9 million modernization of the PLT-7 LPG Merox unit at Izmir designed to reduce sulfur content from 50 ppm to 30 ppm, to meet new emissions standards. Further upgrades planned at Izmir include a $25 million project to increase the capacity of the CCR U-9200 Platformer Unit from 160 cu m/hour to 225 cu m/hour, as well as a $69 million project to revamp the FCC unit and install flue gas treatment and energy recovery systems.

--Croatia's INA has selected Axens Futurol ethanol technology for the "basic engineering design" of an advanced bioethanol production plant at Sisak. Hungary MOL's Croatian affiliate INA made a final investment decision to carry out a residue upgrade project at the Rijeka refinery. The project includes building a delayed coker. MOL said the Sisak refinery will be converted into a bitumen production site and logistics hub. The facility may also produce lubricants and bio-fuel components too, subject to further investment decisions.

--Poland's second largest refiner Grupa Lotos said the modernization of the hydrogen recovery unit to increase the production of hydrogen, LPG and naphtha is scheduled to be completed in the first half of this year. It is also looking at developing a hydrocracker unit for the production of base oils.

--An expansion of Preem's Lysekil refinery near Brofjorden, Sweden, is pending upon decision of the Land and Environment Court of Appeal as well as the government, according to a report by Radio Sweden. The potential increase of carbon emissions could have an impact on the final decision. Separately, Swedish refiner Preem is "evaluating a potential investment in a residue hydrocracking plant" at the Lysekil refinery.

--PKN had signed an agreement with KTI Poland and IDS-BUD for the design, delivery and building of a visbreaker at its Plock refinery. The project, set to be completed by the end of 2022, will have a capacity to produce 200,000 mt/year of diesel, CEO Daniel Obajtek said. Obajtek said PKN's ongoing modernization of the hydrocracking and diesel hydrodesulfurization units at Plock will also increase the refinery's diesel production capacity by 250,000 mt/year. The modernization was expected to be completed by the end of this year.

--Germany's Burghausen refinery is planning to commission a new ISO C4 system for the production of high purity isobutane in September.

--Serbia's Pancevo will upgrade the catalytic cracker, Gazprom Neft said. 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. 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.

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

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

--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 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.

--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 investment project, due for completion in 2020, will generate hydrogen from electricity rather than natural gas. The 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. Start-up was expected in 2021.

--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.

--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 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

Existing entries

--Dutch Hes International (former Hestya Energy) aims to start operations at the LSFO plant at the 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.

--Preliminary work on 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 will process 1.6 million mt/year shale oil and produce 1.5 million mt/year products. 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.