REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: Maintenance, outages in Middle East

News has been emerging on maintenance at refineries in the Middle East, while traders have been assessing the impact of the outage at Kuwait's Mina al-Ahmadi.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude oil exporter, aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2060, with more than 60 initiatives planned at an initial cost of almost $190 billion, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced Oct. 23. Renewables, carbon capture, utilization and storage, direct air capture, hydrogen and low carbon fuels are among the projects that Saudi Arabia will develop to help achieve the target, Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told the inaugural annual Saudi Green Initiative forum in Riyadh. The goal refers to emissions produced domestically and does not apply to hydrocarbons exported and combusted elsewhere.

NEW AND ONGOING MAINTENANCE

UPGRADES

LAUNCHES

New and ongoing maintenance

New and revised entries

** A 180,000 b/d crude desulfurization unit at Kuwait's 346,000 b/d Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery was down after a fire Oct. 18 at a sulfur removal unit, sources close to KPC said, adding that production of gasoil and gasoline had been impacted. While the fire was in the residual desulfurization unit and the CDU was not damaged, it and other units were taken down as a precaution, a source said, adding it might take up to two weeks. The refinery has three CDUs -- two with 180,000 b/d capacity and a small 24,000 b/d CDU to run heavy grade crudes. Separately, KNPC has postponed planned major works at its Mina al-Ahmadi refinery to 2022. The works, involving CDUs, had been originally planned for 2021. As part of KNPC's clean fuels upgrade project, which was completed in September, Mina al-Ahmadi is being integrated into a single 800,000 b/d capacity complex along with the Mina Abdullah refinery.

** Operations for basic overhaul at Iran's Bandar Abbas have started, involving vacuum, LPG, distillation, MEROX and sour water purification units, oil ministry news service Shana reported Oct. 26. Works started Oct. 23, and have been scheduled for 35 days. "The basic overhaul aims at preparing the operational units for steady, 24/7 functioning as well as production and supply of good-quality oil products," Mahmoud Zakeri, deputy head of production at the refinery, was quoted as saying.

** Works at Iran's Isfahan refinery on a 90,000 b/d distillation unit, visbreaker and LPG units ended Sept. 8, according to the company's website. The maintenance had started at the end of July. The distillation unit produces LPG, light gasoline, crude gasoline, light and heavy gas oil as well as feedstock for isomax units. The LPG unit receives around 8,000 b/d to produce LPG. Feedstock for the visbreaker unit is around 21,000 b/d used to produce LPG, hot oil, gasoline and tar, according to Alireza Ghazvinizadeh, head of overhaul and maintenance at the refinery.

** Iran's Tehran started maintenance Oct. 17 on the 17,000 b/d isomax unit, along with the hydrogen and sulfur production units, the official oil ministry news service Shana reported. "In the basic overhaul of the southern isomax unit, which would take 28 working days, there are 102 items. Also there are 44 work orders in the basic overhaul of the hydrogen unit," Mohammadali Hashemi, head of overhaul and maintenance of the refinery, said, according to Shana. He said the sulfur production unit will go through 22 overhaul jobs. "The southern amine and sour water units will have basic overhaul too," Hashemi added. Among jobs to be done are the repair of furnaces, charge of catalysts and replacement of air fans.

Existing entries

** Iran's Imam Khomeini, also known as Arak, oil refinery started an overhaul on Oct. 9 expected to last 32 working days, according to the company. Units involved include isomax, gas purification, sour water purification, flares and phase one's sulfur production. Some 1,500 workers will take part in the works.

** Syria's Homs is undergoing staggered maintenance, which involves the delayed coker unit 11 and a coal unit as well as the CDU 100.

Upgrades

New and revised entries

** Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. has dropped its 200,000 b/d planned expansion and revamp of Ruwais Refinery West, but has compensated for the capacity through internal efficiencies, sources familiar with the matter said. "[ADNOC] have debottlenecked and delivered 200,000 b/d of the extra capacity that would have been planned," a source said. ADNOC confirmed recently it had dropped its plan for a new 400,000 b/d refinery in Ruwais' existing refining complex, citing economic feasibility. The 200,000 b/d expansion of Ruwais West was originally slated for 2024, but market participants noted that to date no engineering, procurement and construction contracts had been awarded. ADNOC declined to comment. ADNOC originally planned to build a 600,000 b/d greenfield refinery in Ruwais and awarded a pre-feed contract to UK-based engineering firm Wood Group in February 2019. However, this changed to a 400,000 b/d petrochemicals-focused refinery and a 200,000 b/d expansion and revamp of Ruwais refining complex after Italy's Eni and Austria's OMV acquired equity stakes in ADNOC. Separately, ADNOC is working on a crude flexibility project, or CFP, at its Ruwais refinery, Platts reported earlier. Upon completion in 2022, the CFP will allow ADNOC to process up to 420,000 b/d "of heavier and sourer grades of crude oil" at the refinery.

Existing entries

** Iran's Imam Khomeini also known as Arak oil refinery signed in July 2021 a Eur290 million technological deal with the Research Institute of Petroleum in a bid to produce 90,000 mt of needle coke on an annual basis, upon launching a coker unit. The move will help Iran with supply of the sanctioned material of needle petroleum coke. Sulfur content of the calcined needle coke will be up to 0.55%. "With preparation of tender documents and selection of the project's contractor by the first half of the next [Iranian] year (September 2022), it is predicted that the needle coke production at Imam Khomeini refinery becomes operational in March-May 2025," Gholamhossein Ramezanpour, managing director of the plant said. In addition to producing needle coke, the project will "cut down" the fuel oil production at the refinery from below 10% currently to zero. As a result of the upgrade, the refinery will produce Euro 4 and 5 gasoline and diesel. In 2019, the National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution Company and the state-owned Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation or IMIDRO signed an agreement for production of sponge and needle coke in Bandar Abbas and Arak refineries. Both refineries are building coke units.

** An approval by the Iraqi Council of Ministers is sought for a 17,000 b/d reformer and 31,000 b/d naphtha hydrotreater at the Basrah refinery, which will be part of the plan's current upgrade. The two units will be built by a consortium including the State Company For Oil Projects (SCOP) and the Czech company UNIS, with duration expected at 43 months. A 70,000 b/d CDU unit at Basrah is near mechanical completion. Once online, the unit will raise the refinery's capacity to 280,000 b/d. Preparations have also commenced to start work on the FCC unit by the Japanese Contractor JGC. The project consists of a fluid catalytic cracking unit (34,500 b/d), vacuum distillation unit (55,000 b/d) and a diesel desulfurization unit (40,000 b/d). The project is scheduled to be completed in 2025. The project aims to convert the excess fuel oil produced by the existing refinery units -- 45% of the yield -- to lighter products.

** Iran's Abadan refinery has reported in July 2021 progress on its upgrade. "The Abadan oil refinery stabilization and expansion is like a new refinery that stands beside the old Abadan refinery...and the old refinery will be renovated," Mohammad Rezaie, the National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution director for research and technology, was quoted by the oil ministry-run news service Shana. The new plant includes all the processing units. The modernization of Abadan will provide high-quality, Euro-standardized diesel. According to Mehdi Arami, manager of the expansion and stabilization project, "one of other objectives of this project given its 360,000 b/d capacity is that the production of fuel oil will "lower from 40% to 25%." Meanwhile, production of regular gasoline and kerosene will increase 16% and 25%, respectively. The Phase 2 upgrade started in February 2017. Phase 2 includes building atmospheric and vacuum units, as well as gasoline, diesel and kerosene distillation units, a sulfur unit, and a catalytic cracking unit. Abadan, with 400,000 b/d nameplate capacity, aims to stabilize its throughput at 360,000 b/d.

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

** Iran's Isfahan refinery aims to reduce fuel oil output to zero upon completing upgrade. Currently fuel oil accounts for 18% of the refinery's output. A desulfurization project has been designed in the plant to re-refine 81,000 b/d from distillation towers remaining to make lighter products. This project is due to go on stream by March 2025.

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

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

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

** Iran will accelerate the expansion and upgrade of the Shiraz refinery. The expansion, which started in 2017, was due to be completed in three years but was slowed down due to sanctions. The first phase of the expansion and upgrade will involve upgrading the gasoline quality, with the second phase involving a diesel upgrade. An isomerization unit and diesel hydrotreater will be built under the project, estimated at $300 million. Shiraz has around 50,000 b/d current capacity. The expansion will add 26,000 b/d.

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

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

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

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

** Bahrain Petroleum Co. is aiming to phase out all fuel oil production by 2025 and focus on diesel and jet fuel. A $6 billion upgrade and modernization project of BAPCO's flagship Sitra refinery is now 60% complete. The program will also see the refinery's capacity expand to 380,000 b/d from 267,000 b/d.

In the summer of 2020, BAPCO said the refinery expansion had been delayed due to COVID-19. The project, whose original timescale was four years, had been slated for completion in 2022, but that plan has changed.

** Iraq's oil minister has laid the foundation stone for two units of total capacity 20,000 b/d at the Haditha refinery site in the western province of Anbar. The units will raise the capacity of the plant to around 35,000 b/d from 16,000 b/d. International companies will be approached to bid for building an additional 35,000 b/d at the refinery, which will raise its overall capacity to 70,000 b/d.

** Iraq plans to rehabilitate and develop the Baiji complex north of Baghdad, where three refineries were damaged during the war with the Islamic State group. Currently one refinery is operating at 70,000 b/d, a second 70,000 b/d unit and a third 140,000 b/d facility should become operational. The third refinery would take total capacity at the Baiji complex back to 280,000 b/d, making it again the largest facility in the country.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

** Jordan Petroleum Refinery Co. has awarded a contract to US engineering company KBR for the design of a new residue hydro-processing unit as part of its expansion of the Zarqa refinery in Jordan.

Launches

Existing entries

** Construction of the new Al-Zour refinery in Kuwait is expected to be completed in the summer of 2022, according to a source close to the company. Construction is currently 98% completed. The new Al-Zour refinery in Kuwait started test runs in late 2020, S&P Global Platts has reported previously. The petrochemicals complex at Al-Zour was due for completion in 2023, with start-up expected in 2024.

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

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

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

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

** Iraq expects to gradually commission the greenfield Karbala refinery in Q1 2022. The refinery will include 35 units and 44 storage tanks. Plans are also underway to build a new 70,000 b/d refinery in Qayara, near the Qayara oil field in the north. Besides these projects, the oil ministry is seeking to encourage investors to finance "investment refineries," in several locations, including Zubair and Fao in the south. Iraq is in talks with Eni to build a 300,000 b/d refinery near the Zubair oil field operated by the Italian company in the southern part of the country. The first phase of the project includes commissioning 150,000 b/d by 2025.

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

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

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

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

** The Duqm refinery project in the south of Oman is now more than 80% complete. The refinery has been under construction since 2018 and is expected to start up in 2022.

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

** Saudi Arabia's Jazan refinery is ramping up but is facing regular missile attacks launched from just across the border with Yemen. The 400,000 b/d refinery, also known by the alternate spelling Jizan, lies in the far southwest of Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea, about 60 km from the Yemeni border. Aramco has yet to formally announce its commissioning. It had previously been expected to be commissioned at the end of 2019 and be ready for full operations in the second half of 2020. It was expected to start primary distillation units around February-March 2021 and proceed with secondary units later.

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

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

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