REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: European refiners continue to limit runs

London — European refiners continue to limit their run rates due to low margins.

Meanwhile, there has been an uptick in demand for high sulfur vacuum gasoil in Europe, which sources attribute to refiners' very low margins from crude distillation units. Sources have reported increased demand recently for high-sulfur vacuum gasoil -- a refinery feedstock that comes out of CDUs and is then processed in secondary units to create gasoline and distillates. "European refineries are all at minimum CDU runs because of low CDU margins, and they all need to produce gasoline and 10 ppm [diesel] because of very good demand, so, they are buying a lot of VGO," a source said.

** In Spain, Repsol expects its Spanish refineries to run at a utilization rate of 77% for the full year, CEO Josu Jon Imaz said July 23. This would mean a slight increase in the second half to around 78% after reporting rates of 70% in Q2 and 82% in Q1. The conversion rate for the full year is seen at 92%, which would mean a rate of around 93% in the second half after rates of 82% in Q2 and 100% in Q1. The company previously said it was planning a turnaround at Puertollano before year-end while units at A Coruna and Bilbao are not reported to have returned since being taken offline during the COVID-19 state of alert. The demand improvement along with emptying inventories mean a current margin level of $2.80/b should increase toward $3.80/b soon, Imaz said.

** Spanish-based integrated oil group Cepsa said July 30 it expects refinery rates at its Spanish complexes to edge up to 85% during the month of July and steadily approach the optimal run rate by year-end, assuming the positive trend in demand continues. The gradual reopening of the Spanish economy in Q2 resulted in increased volumes towards the end of the quarter and by the end of June all fuel retail stations were operational, Cepsa said, noting that at the end of June its refineries were running at a 82% utilization rate. This compares to a rate of 74% reported for the Q2 period, during which refining output fell 19% year on year to 4.4 million mt.

** Italy's Eni reported lower throughput rates for both the second quarter and first half, "reflecting a challenged demand backdrop as a result of pandemic-induced lockdown measures and storage saturation." Throughput at its Italian refineries was 3.15 million mt in Q2, down 40% on the year, and 7.21 million mt in H1, down 29%. The average utilization rate including at its refineries outside Italy was 60% in Q2, down from 88% a year earlier, and 67% in H1, down from 87%.

** Austria-based OMV reported an 86% utilization rate in the first half of 2020, "relatively resilient in light of the lockdown measures." This was down from 97% a year earlier, it said in its financial report. In the second quarter, its utilization rate was 79%, down from 96%, and was supported by "our ability to switch from jet fuel to petrochemical production."

** France's Total reported 22% lower utilization in the second quarter and first half of the year, mostly due to outages at its French refineries. It reported overall utilization at all of its refineries of 1.249 million b/d in the second quarter, down from 1.595 million b/d in Q2 2019, and 1.347 million b/d in the first half, lower than 1.729 million b/d in H1 2019. Its French refineries reported a 54% drop in utilization in the second quarter to 205,000 b/d and a 56% fall in the first half to 230,000 b/d, due to a prolonged shutdown at Feyzin and the decision not to restart Grandpuits after a major turnaround "given the drop in demand," as well as the CDU shutdown at Gonfreville in Normandy after an incident at the end of 2019. Planned maintenance at Feyzin, which started in February, was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic and resumed in May. Overall the company reported under-50% utilization in Q2 noting that high inventory weighed on refinery margins and utilization rates. Meanwhile Total said during the call that its biofuels La Mede refinery was "the only positive" during the quarter and in view of Europe's commitment to climate neutrality by 2050 it is willing to "develop a more aggressive strategy" in the biofuels business and "convert a European refinery to biofuels."

** France's Grandpuits refinery could be closed as a refinery and converted into a plant for the production of bio plastics due to potentially costly repairs on the Ile-de-France pipeline (PLIF) bringing crude to the plant, according to local media reports. Total is currently carrying out an audit of the pipeline and the "longer term future of Grandpuits" depends upon "the viability of the pipeline", the company said July 6, adding that it is "not prepared to work with units which have deficiencies."

** 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."

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

** 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. Two planned maintenances at Spain's Castellon have been pushed back, with no fixed date for their execution.

** Portugal's Galp said it brought forward some scheduled refinery maintenance work that might have been done in the second half to the year as it reduced operations in the second quarter because of the impact of the measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic. "The slowdown time was used to bring forward some scheduled maintenance," CEO Carlos Gomez da Silva said, without elaborating. The halts will mean a reduction in stoppages in the rest of the year, during which downstream demand in the Iberian market has already been recovering. Galp halted its whole 220,000 b/d Sines refinery for around six weeks, while at the end of Q2 said it still had its fuel units offline at the 110,000 b/d Matosinhos after taking them offline in mid-April. The outlook for operating rates in H2 remains bleak, with Gomez da Silva saying inventories in H2 are still high and cracks look depressed. This means there is no economic incentive to push the system, he said, without providing an estimate for operating rates in the period. Refinery throughput for the second quarter was down 49% year on year at 13.4 million barrels of oil equivalent to a 45% utilization rate, or around half of the companies pre-coronavirus estimate of 90% for the full year.

** Italian refinery production in the first five months of the year slipped 7.9% to 25.7 million mt compared to the same period in 2019, dragged by crude refining, according to data released by the Italian industry group Unione Petrolifera July 30. Standard crude throughput fell 10.9% to 23.24 million mt in the first five months, the UP said. The average Jan-May run rate was 70.6% of the 87.25 million mt/year full capacity, it said. In January, the run rate was 80.2%, in the first two months 77.6%, in the first quarter 75.6%, and in the first four months of 2020 it was 72.1%, weighed by the outbreak.

** Portuguese oil product demand dropped 24% year on year in the first half of 2020, as COVID-19 restrictions weighed from March onwards, estimates published July 20 by the country's Energy Department, Direccao Geral de Energia e Geologia (DGEG) showed. Total oil product demand was 3.5 million metric tons in the period, down from 4.6 million mt in the first six months of 2019, with jet fuel and bunker fuel leading the declines.

** Turkish diesel demand over the first 25 days of July rose 6.1% year on year to 1.589 million liters, energy ministry data showed. The increase is below the 8.2% reported in June, but still a stark contrast to the fall of 27.7% in May, when travel restrictions imposed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic were still in place. Gasoline demand over the first 25 days of July totaled 267 million liters, up 22.5% year on year, and in contrast to declines of 2.1% in June and 32.4% in May. The continuing increase in diesel sales comes alongside a rebound in the Turkish freight transportation market, with the economy reopening and the use of intercity buses in the period increasing in the run-up to the Eid holiday, which officially runs from July 31 to August 3.

** Israel's Bazan, which operates the Haifa refinery, said that the refinery is back to normal operations. It does not plan any works this year.

** Total has agreed to sell its Lindsey refinery in the UK to fuel trading and marketing Prax Group, as the French oil major focuses on its integrated downstream assets and the coronavirus adds to the uncertainty over long-term demand for fuel. For UK-based independent Prax, the deal will boost the scale of its existing fuel supply and retailing operations through its subsidiary Harvest Energy, securing local supplies for its growing independent fuel dealerships business.

** Shell recently relaunched the sale of its Fredericia refinery in Denmark after suspending the sale in 2018.

In other news, Italy has suspended a series of environmental rules recently introduced by the government of Sicily that would have put the operations of local refineries including Milazzo, Augusta and ISAB at risk, according to refinery sources and local media reports. "This is excellent news for the refineries, and to all effects means that the technical opposition we drew up to the new regulations was accepted by the court," said Ivan Tripodi, secretary general of the UIL trade union for the province of Messina, in Sicily. The new regional environmental standards that the region was going make effective in the coming months introduced more stringent regulations on emissions, meaning some of the refineries currently operating in Sicily would not have complied with the new standards, according to the unions.

All units at Germany's Ingolstadt are back, the company said July 31. Some units have been halted following a minor incident at the catalytic cracker unit July 30.

NEW AND ONGOING MAINTENANCE, UPGRADES

FUTURE

UPGRADES

LAUNCHES

Near term maintenance

New and revised entries

** Cepsa said it had reduced rates to meet lower demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, carrying out just one short, routine maintenance at one of its two crude units at the San Roque refinery in May.

** Throughput at PKN Orlen's main Polish refinery in Plock was down 11% in Q2 and utilisation fell 11 percentage points on the year, thanks to maintenance on the CDU III and VI, HDS V and VII and PTA units as well as accelerated shutdowns of the FCC II and Metathesis units due to lower fuel demand.

** Throughput at PKN Orlen's Orlen Lietuva refinery in Lithuania dropped 24% and utilisation fell by 22 percentage points on the year in Q2 due to the unfavourable macroeconomic situation and the start of the Spring maintenance shutdown at the end of March, as well as the unplanned shutdown of the HDT diesel unit, PKN said.

** Q2 throughput at PKN's Czech refineries fell 59% and utilisation was down 51 percentage points on the year, due to the planned shutdown of the refining and petrochemical units of the Litvinov refinery and the delayed startup of the Kralupy refinery after a maintenance shutdown in March.

** A planned maintenance will be carried out at the Wesseling site of the Rheinland refinery from the end of August until October, the company said July 29, without specifying the affected units. Sources said the methanol unit at the site will undergo maintenance at the same time but the exact dates were not available. The unit has a total annual capacity of 400,000 mt. The refinery consists of the Wesseling (south) and Godorf (north) sites.

** Saras, which owns Italy's Sarroch refinery, carried out maintenance work in the first half of the year and returned to full production capacity in the second half of 2020. This has positioned the refinery to take "full advantage from the first signs of recovery, initially forecasted for the second half of the year, and now expected between the second half of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021," according to the company's financial results. Refining runs in the second quarter fell 36% at 2.3 million mt due to wide-scale maintenance works that included major works on its Topping T1 units and fluid catalytic cracking unit, and led to the shutdown of a series of plants. Maintenance started in March and ended end-May, though the FCC plant continued works in June "given the low economics of refining gasoline in the second quarter." Meanwhile, the refinery has started carrying out maintenance work on its hydrocracker (MHC) diesel unit in the past few weeks.

** Finland's Neste said July 23 that only critical unit maintenance was performed during Q2. However there is "scheduled catalyst change in one of our Porvoo units in the third quarter and at the Rotterdam refinery in the fourth quarter," it said.

** The Zeeland refinery in Flushing, the Netherlands, is back after works, sources said. The refinery, which was unavailable to comment, said earlier on its website that it started large-scale planned maintenance in the middle of May. The maintenance was used for the upgrade of the hydrocracker to be completed, the company has previously said. Last summer, the refinery received 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 was due to be connected to the existing installation in 2020.

** Some maintenance took part at Schwechat in June, OMV said. It previously said that scheduled maintenance would take place in Schwechat in June and Petrobrazi at the end of July.

Existing entries

** Russian energy group Lukoil's ISAB refinery in Sicily will carry out wide-scale maintenance and upgrades in the autumn that were delayed from March-April.

** Algerian Sonatrach's Augusta plant on the Italian island of Sicily will carry out works on its reformer in July for about 13 days, during which a planned substitution of the unit's catalyzers will be carried out, a source close to the refinery said. The Augusta refinery is currently running at 70-80% of capacity as the outbreak of the coronavirus in Italy and the subsequent government lockdown aimed at curbing its spread negatively affects demand for oil products.

** Two planned maintenances at the Castellon refinery is eastern Spain have been pushed back, with no fixed date for when they will now go ahead. The first was previously scheduled for May and to last two to three weeks, affecting two distillation units, the powerformer 1 and the HVN. The company said that this had not been carried out and has not been assigned a new date. A second maintenance, initially due for November for two to three weeks, affecting one conversion unit (treatment plant) and the 1.4 million mt/year coker, has been pushed back into 2021, the company said, without specifying exactly when. BP previously said that the refinery has been running normally, with its with output adjusted to the weaker demand.

** 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.

** 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.

** France's Feyzin refinery has resumed its maintenance in May. Planned maintenance at Feyzin was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. Work started on February 14 and was due to last around seven weeks.

** France's Gonfreville is working at around 50% capacity after its CDU was damaged. 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.

** 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.

** 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. 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 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

** Czech Unipetrol said that following the turnaround at its Litvinov plant in Q2'20 the refinery has prepared production for a new four-year cycle. Thus the next turnaround is due in 2024.

Existing entries

** Italy's Milazzo will carry out wide-scale maintenance and upgrade works on its diesel plants in the second quarter of 2021. Around half of the refinery's plants will be involved in the maintenance works. The works were originally planned for the autumn of this year but were recently postponed to next year after the COVID-19 crisis and the subsequent drop in demand for refined products led Milazzo to cancel all but necessary maintenance and investment works this year.

** 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.

** 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 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

** Romania's Petromidia has completed an upgrade project aimed at optimizing the delayed coker unit which results in increasing the raw material processing and also reduces the yield of heavy gasoil while leading to recovery of more light gasoil. The project consisted in installing a new light gasoil recovery system at fractionation column of the delayed coker.

** The Zeeland refinery in Flushing, the Netherlands, is back after works, sources said. The refinery, which was unavailable to comment, said earlier on its website that it started large-scale planned maintenance in the middle of May. The maintenance was used for the upgrade of the hydrocracker to be completed, the company has previously said. Last summer, the refinery received 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 was due to be connected to the existing installation in 2020.

Existing entries

** PKN Orlen laid the foundation stone July 6 to mark the start of a Zloty 1 billion ($254 million) investment to build a visbreaking unit at its Plock refinery. The unit, which will increase gasoline and diesel yield at the refinery, is being built by a consortium of KTI Poland and IDS-BEU under a turnkey contract. It will be completed by the end of 2022. The company has said previously the visbreaker will allow the refinery to reduce fuel oil output and increase its production of distillates. The unit will have a capacity to produce 200,000 mt/year of diesel. Ongoing modernization of the hydrocracking and diesel hydrodesulfurisation units at Plock will also increase the refinery's diesel production capacity. 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. PKN signed a contract to buy the license from Axens. The HOG unit at Plock was launched in 1999. The modernization will allow the unit to produce more diesel and gasoline.

** 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.

** Five 2 MW PEM electrolysers have been installed and testing has 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 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.

** 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.

** 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.