REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: Some European refiners halt amid COVID-19, certain plants restart

London — Some European refiners are gradually getting back to normal operations, but others are halting operations in the wake of the demand destruction caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

--Gunvor Group said June 23 that it has commenced the process of assessing whether to mothball its Antwerp site, "given the uncertainties that the refinery will be again an economically viable operation in the near future." "A confluence of geopolitical and macroeconomic events exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic has put the refinery in a very difficult economic situation," the company said, adding that the crude processing units have already been stopped since the end of May "due to a lack of oil product demand, and there is no scenario in which the refinery does not continue to carry significant losses into the near future".

--Meanwhile, Gunvor's Rotterdam refinery, which postponed maintenance previously due to COVID-19, is in maintenance until October.

--In Spain, Repsol suspended all production at the refinery for around 20 days until mid-July. The halt is due to an excess of jet fuel stocks at the site after air travel in Spain has been drastically reduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic measures. The kerosene unit at the refinery can produce 1.1 million mt/year. The associated chemical plants at the same site will not be affected, the company said.

--Italy's Livorno refinery is running at between 50%-60% capacity as its diesel and gasoline refining activities are operating at reduced levels due to huge stockpiling. The two lubricant production lines are operating normally. The refinery will halt all upgrades, as well as investments on new plants and all maintenance works, barring those carried on malfunctioning units until the end of the year.

--Eni's refineries in Italy -- Sannazzaro and Taranto -- are running at around 60% of capacity.

--Italy's Milazzo, which has postponed a turnaround originally planned for autumn to early 2021, is planning to carry out the work in the second quarter of next year. Milazzo will likely delay the planned end-June restart of its FCC unit due to slow demand for refined products. The unit was put offline in April. Milazzo is currently carrying out maintenance work on its crude storage units.

--Italy's demand for refined oil products slumped in May, as the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic curbed the movement of people and brought much of economic activity to a halt, data released by industry group Unione Petrolifera showed. Demand for refined oil products fell 28.5%, or 1.45 million mt, on the year to 3.6 million mt in May. In the first five months of the year, oil product demand was down 21.1%, or 5.07 million mt, to 19 million mt, read the statement. Demand for jet fuel plunged 83.5% in the month of May, and 53.3% in the first five months of the year.

--Petroineos' Grangemouth refinery in the UK is running at around 50% of capacity on weak demand for oil products, according to a source close to the matter. Petroineos' Lavera refinery in France is operating below capacity after completing maintenance in early April, the source said.

--Finland's Neste deferred planned maintenance. Norway's Mongstad, has decided to postpone maintenance work originally scheduled to take place in May. Germany's Heide Raffinerie has postponed planned maintenance for six months due to the coronavirus.

--Austria's 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 product demand. The company's previous expectations were for a 95% utilization rate in 2020, from 97% in 2019.

--Romania's Petromidia is running at reduced rates due to lower product demand, market sources said. It is expecting to increase run rates to around 70%-75% in June from 60% in May. The refinery completed its turnaround between March 13 and April 28.

In more positive news,

--Dutch Hes International (former Hestya Energy) said June 4 it has restarted the low sulfur fuel oil unit at the mothballed Wilhelmshaven refinery.

--ExxonMobil's Gravenchon refinery in France restarted units.

--France's Feyzin refinery has resumed maintenance and is likely to restart in July.

--France's Grandpuits restarted in early June.

--France's Gonfreville is working at around 50% capacity after its crude distillation unit was damaged, traders said. Works to repair the CDU, which were suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak, have resumed.

--API's refinery in the Italian coastal town of Falconara Marittima is operational after restarting. It is scheduled to carry out maintenance and upgrade works on its TK205 crude storage units through the end of July.

--Saras, which owns Italy's Sarroch refinery, which has been running at around 70% of its capacity since March and had only two of its three CDUs operational, has completed works at its topping plant and will be restarting the unit in the near future. It has also been carrying out work on its MHC2 unit, its visbreaking plant, and its U400 and U500 units, as well as an FCC conversion in recent months. The maintenance would be completed in the second half of the year, at which time the plant would be positioned to reach full capacity if required.

--In Spain, workers have been returning to Repsol's A Coruna refinery after the complex was kept largely offline since a routine halt in January. The company halted a crude unit at its largest refinery at Bilbao on May 9 and has curtailed production at the fluid catalytic crackers at Bilbao and Puertollano.

--Portugal's Galp has restarted production at its Sines refinery in mid-June after halting it on May 4. The company had also cut output at its smaller Matosinhos refinery in April.

--Pernis in the Netherlands is restarting after bringing its maintenance forward to mid-April.

--Germany's Schwedt has completed planned maintenance.

--Zeeland in Flushing in the Netherlands has started its planned maintenance.

--Israel's Bazan, which operates the Haifa refinery, said that as of early May "most of the severe traffic restrictions have been removed in Israel and according to the Ministry of Energy, consumption of diesel and gasoline is returning to the pre-restrictions level."

--Turkey's Izmir refinery in Aliaga is likely to restart in July, according to traders. The refinery halted completely on May 5 due to weak demand. Meanwhile, Tupras issued a buy tender for crude for delivery in July at the Izmir and/or Izmit refineries.

--Turkey's Kirikkale refinery near Ankara is running at reduced rates, according to trading sources. Azerbaijan's Socar said June 16 it was continuing production at its 212,000 b/d STAR refinery at normal levels, substituting increased production of diesel for jet, but is anticipating increased jet demand in July.

--Turkish diesel demand for the first 20 days of June was up 10% from the same period of 2019 at 1,055 million litres, following the lifting of restrictions imposed to combat the spread of the coronavirus, energy ministry data showed. However, the rise fell short of the 18.2% reported over the first 13 days of June, with this sharp rise due to the lifting of travel restrictions and the sudden need for vehicles to refill tanks after the country's two-month lockdown.

NEW AND ONGOING MAINTENANCE, UPGRADES

FUTURE

UPGRADES

LAUNCHES

Near term maintenance

New and revised entries

--Some units at ExxonMobil's Rotterdam refinery in Botlek went offline following a power cut, although the refinery remains operational, the company said June 15. As a result of a power failure in the morning of June 14, some units were taken out of service and the process was accompanied by flaring. The local environmental agency DCMR also reported that the refinery has halted units due to a major power failure. The company said that for the shutdown and subsequent restart some flaring was required but that there would be no environmental impact. The restart of the affected units should take a few days.

--Czech Unipetrol said June 8 it had completed a two-month long turnaround at Litvinov, with units gradually restarting. The maintenance, during which operations were entirely suspended, started April 9. Key projects included repair of the CDU furnace, replacement of a cooling water underground pipeline at the partial oxidation production unit and servicing of large compressors at the steam cracker. PKN said earlier that its Czech refineries were undergoing extensive maintenance since April. Separately, maintenance at Kralupy has also been completed, Unipetrol said June 10. PKN said in its Q1 results that its Czech refineries were undergoing extensive maintenance. Kralupy also had a hydrocracker maintenance in February.

--Italy's Sarroch refinery has completed works at its FCC unit and will restart the plant in the near future, a source close to the refinery said in late June. Sarroch has also completed works at its topping plant. The refinery is currently carrying out a series of maintenance and upgrade works at units at the plant, including the FCC plant and the topping T1 unit, which have been completed. It has also been carrying out work at its MHC2 unit, its visbreaking plant, and its U400 and U500 units in recent months, though it is not clear if this work has been finalized. The series of maintenance and upgrade works are scheduled to be completed in the second half of the year during which time the plant will be positioned to reach full capacity if required.

--Shell's Pernis refinery in the Netherlands is in the process of restarting after maintenance, market sources said June 10. The company previously said it would start works in mid-April, bringing them forward from the original plan for maintenance to start May 4 through June.

--Russian energy group Lukoil's ISAB refinery in Sicily, which has delayed plans to carry out wide-scale maintenance and upgrades in the March-April period, is currently carrying out works on its desulfurization plants that are tied to its topping unit, a source close to the plant said. The refinery is currently online, the person said.

--Gunvor said June 23 that it's Rotterdam refinery is currently undergoing a turnaround due to be completed in October. The company said at the end of March that it was delaying the turnaround due to the coronavirus pandemic. Gunvor halted CDU1 in November for economic reasons and also to prepare for the upcoming turnaround in March, it said previously. The refinery has CDU units of 38,000 b/d and 50,000 b/d capacity.

Existing entries

--Valero Energy refinery in Pembroke, Wales has started its maintenance at the end of May and is due back later in June, according to market sources. The company was not immediately available to comment. In its Q1 results, Valero said Q2 planned work at its two non-US refineries -- the 235,000 b/d Quebec City refinery and the 270,000 b/d Pembroke plant -- will reduce throughput to between 315,000 b/d and 335,000 b/d, without providing data for each of the two refineries.

--Turkish refiner Tupras said it had postponed most of the maintenance work scheduled for later this year. The only planned maintenance work for this year is now a six-week shutdown of the U400 FCC unit at Izmir in the fourth quarter.

--Repsol has reduced operations at some refineries as a result of the pandemic and its impact on demand. It said its FCCs at Bilbao and Puertollano were running at reduced rates, with other units also affected by the industrial slowdown. The company also took its crude 2 unit offline at Bilbao on May 9 due to market reasons, with the unit staying offline until conditions improve.

--France's Feyzin refinery has resumed its maintenance and is likely to restart in July, according to trading sources. Planned maintenance at Feyzin was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. The petrochemical part of the plant was operating normally. Work started on February 14 and was due to last around seven weeks.

--France's Gonfreville is currently working at around 50% capacity after its CDU was damaged, traders said. Works to repair the crude distillation unit at the Gonfreville refinery which have been suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak have now resumed, according to market sources. Total said earlier the CDU, which was damaged in December following a fire at a pump feeding crude oil, will restart before the end of the year.

--The Zeeland refinery in Flushing, the Netherlands, which is undergoing full maintenance, is expected back in June, according to trading sources. The refinery started large scale planned maintenance in the middle of May, it said on its website. It also said that during the maintenance the risk of infection is minimized "thanks to a strict prevention and hygiene protocol" with a distance of one and half meters being kept. Traders also attributed the timing of the maintenance to poor margins and weak oil products demand. The maintenance will be used for the upgrade of the hydrocracker to be completed, the company has previously said.

--Greek refiner Hellenic said its Aspropyrgos refinery will have full turnaround in Q3.

--Planned general maintenance and an upgrade at Germany's Leuna refinery this autumn has been postponed "due to the ongoing pandemic and the resulting restrictions on travel and transport of goods, as well as the impact on international supply chains", the company said. The maintenance had been planned to take placed over six weeks, regional newspaper Mitteldeutsche Zeitung reported. Total said in 2019 it would invest Eur150 million ($166 million) to reduce production of heavy products as demand decreases, and increase production of methanol, a key feedstock for the chemical industry. Work was due to continue until 2021, with the bulk carried out during a major shutdown of the refinery in 2020.

--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.

--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 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 only critical maintenance work can be carried out over April-June.

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

--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.

--Spain's Castellon has two planned maintenance periods during 2020. The first, scheduled for May 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

--Italy's Milazzo, which has postponed a turnaround originally planned for the autumn to early 2021, is planning to carry out the work in the second quarter of next year, a source close to the refinery said.

--Lukoil's Neftochim refinery in Burgas, Bulgaria, will be carrying out major works in 2021, including atmospheric vacuum unit 1, atmospheric vacuum units 2, atmospheric vacuum distillation 2, FCC, hydrotreatment, hydrocracker, according to company tender documents. The refinery typically carries out works around February-March.

Existing entries

--Tupras said it had postponed most of the maintenance work scheduled for later this year. Planned fourth-quarter closures at Izmir of the U9200 CCR unit (7 weeks), U9600 Isomerization unit (8 weeks) and U9900 MOD unit (7 weeks) and at Izmit of the Plt Desulphurization Unit (4 weeks) have all been postponed to unspecified dates in 2021 the company said.

--Italy's Livorno will avoid all non-essential maintenance and investment in the coming year as part of a plan to reduce coronavirus-related risks. As part of the decision, the refinery will postpone a planned extraordinary maintenance cycle scheduled for October to 2021, though it is not clear whether this will take place in the first few months of the year or in April-May. The October maintenance was originally scheduled to last about one and a half months and would have involved most of the refinery's main units as well as its storage plants.

--With its 2020 maintenance, Romania's Petromidia and the petrochemical division "will align with the new operating strategy, with a general turnaround scheduled for 4 years and technological shutdowns scheduled for 2 years," the company said.

--Germany's Heide Raffinerie has been postponed planned maintenance for six months due to the coronavirus outbreak, it said in April. 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.

--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.

--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

--Spanish integrated energy company Repsol said June 15 it will build a 10-MW, green-hydrogen plant which it will use to produce synthetic fuels in collaboration with Saudi Aramco at its Bilbao refinery. The plant is part of an Eur80-million decarbonization project that will also include a carbon-capture project and a fuel-from-waste plant, and should be completed by 2024.

--An upgrade of Preem's Lysekil refinery near Brofjorden, Sweden, which has been cleared by the highest environmental court in Sweden, is now awaiting government approval, the company said June 18. The upgrade, which is part of the refinery's drive to ensure climate neutrality by 2040, was awaiting decisions by the land and environment court of appeal as well as the government. The plan includes a phase-out of fossil fuel and production of 5 million m3 of renewable gasoline, diesel and jet fuel by 2030. The refinery is not planning to increase the processing of crude oil but to reduce the fuel oil output. Around 20% of the refinery's current output is HSFO, demand for which had diminished following the IMO 2020 sulfur cap on marine fuel. Preem is aiming to build a slurry hydrocracking plant that can convert fuel oil into sulfur-free gasoline and diesel. It can also be used to make renewable fuels but need environmental clearance.

Existing entries

--Five 2 MW PEM electrolysers have been installed and testing begun at Shell's Rheinland refinery in Germany, but delays to the Refhyne project are now anticipated due to coronavirus restrictions, UK hydrogen company ITM said in a trading update June 8. 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.

--Poland's largest refiner, PKN Orlen, said it has purchased a license and basic design for the modernization of a hydrodesulfurisation (HOG) unit to increase the production of high-margin products at its Plock refinery. This is the response to the global changes in the fuel and energy industry, including the increasingly restrictive global regulations," PKN's CEO Daniel Obajtek said in a statement. New International Maritime Organisation regulations reduce the sulfur content of marine fuel from 3.5% to a maximum 0.5%. PKN signed a contract to buy the license from Axens. The company is planning to launch a tender to select a contractor for the investment in the coming months. The HOG unit at Plock was launched in 1999. The modernization will allow the unit to produce more diesel and gasoline.

--Poland's second largest refiner Grupa Lotos is looking at developing a hydrocracker unit for the production of base oils.

--Planned general maintenance and an upgrade at Germany's Leuna refinery this autumn has been postponed "due to the ongoing pandemic and the resulting restrictions on travel and transport of goods, as well as the impact on international supply chains", the company said. Work was also due to continue in 2021 and by the end of next year the project would be completed. Total said in 2019 that it would invest Eur150 million ($166.5 million) over 2020-2021 to reduce production of heavy products as demand decreases, and increase production of methanol, an important feedstock for the chemical industry.

--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.

--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.

--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.

--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

--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.