REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: Plants in India ramp up runs

London — Refineries in India are ramping up run rates as demand gradually gets back to pre-coronavirus levels though the picture around the rest of the Asia-Pacific remains mixed.

** India's No.1 state-owned refiner Indian Oil Corp. has been running its plants at full capacity since early November as demand for fuels except jet reached pre-coronavirus levels as Asia's third-largest economy gathered momentum after the end of lockdown, company officials said Nov. 20. IOC's processing demand for gasoline and diesel reached the pre-coronavirus level by the end of October. India's fifth phase of ending of lockdown was from Oct. 1 until Nov. 30. India's overall demand for oil products rose 2.5% year on year in October to 4.5 million b/d, the oil ministry said, reflecting a revival of economic activities due to the unlocking of the economy. The rise in October ended the declining trend of seven straight months in retail fuel demand due to the coronavirus lockdown. IOC's nine refineries operated at 90% in October, 77% in September, 61% in August due to the return of the lockdown in many places, 83% in July, 89% in June as the economy unlocked, 67% in May, and 49% in April.

** India's Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd will continue to operate its refinery at around 60%-70% of capacity in the near term, as poor middle distillate margins put earlier plans to ramp up rates on hold, industry sources with close knowledge of the matter said. The refiner had planned to continue raising run rates to around 75%-80% in October, but have pushed back plans to later in the fourth quarter, choosing instead to wait for oil products demand to show improvement across the barrel.

** India's state-owned refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. has returned operation levels at its Kochi and Mumbai refineries to near full capacity, a company source said Nov. 16. "Gasoline requirement is good, gasoil [demand] is not good because of the monsoon and coronavirus, but [transportation demand] has picked up, so now Kochi is almost back to the pre-COVID level of 100% operation rate and Mumbai is back to the pre-COVID level," the source said. Similarly, another source based in India said: "Mogas demand is now back to normal. Gasoil is still marginally lower than 100%, but it's better than expected. November will be a strong month due to the holidays." India celebrated the festival of lights, Diwali, mid-November, which typically leads to an uptick in demand for motor fuels such as diesel and gasoline from the world's third largest energy consumer. In October, BPCL refineries ran at an average rate of 86% of capacity, S&P Global Platts earlier reported.

** Shell will halve the crude processing capacity at its Pulau Bukom refinery in Singapore as part of the energy major's initiative to reduce its CO2 emissions to net zero by 2050, it said Nov. 10. "Bukom will pivot from a crude oil, fuels-based product slate towards new, low-carbon value chains," the company said. "We will reduce our crude processing capacity by about half and aim to deliver a significant reduction in CO2 emissions." Shell had said it would slim down its upstream and refining operations and direct more spending to grow its low-carbon businesses. As part of this strategy, it plans to transform its current footprint of 14 refining sites into six "energy and chemicals parks" at Deer Park (US), Norco (US), Pernis (Netherlands), Pulau Bukom (Singapore), Rheinland (Germany) and Scotford (Canada).

** South Korea's top refiner SK Energy reduced its oil product output by 13.3% in the first nine months of 2020 as it lowered crude run rates in response to weaker demand amid the coronavirus pandemic, a company official said Nov. 18. Ulsan produced 191.17 million barrels of oil products over January-September, compared with 220.56 million barrels a year earlier. SK Energy's crude throughput dropped to 76% in the third quarter, which marked the lowest-ever level, compared with 94% a year earlier, according to the official. The company lowered its crude throughput to 77% in the second quarter from 92% in the first quarter in response to oil demand destruction in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. "The company's oil product output is expected to keep declining in the fourth quarter as it is further lowering crude run rates," the official said, adding the refiner would not raise crude throughput in the first half of next year. As part of efforts to cut its crude run rate, SK Energy has shut its No. 3 CDU with a capacity of 170,000 b/d since late September, earlier than originally scheduled, according to a separate source at the company. The source refused to provide details on when SK Energy will restart the No. 3 CDU, but indicated the shutdown is likely to be longer than a usual maintenance as they are seeking to keep its crude run rate lower amid the pandemic.

** Indonesia's state-owned Pertamina was reported to be keeping the run rate at its Balikpapan refinery in East Kalimantan steady at around 80% in November, matching October levels as the country's domestic demand for gasoline holds steady. Industry sources with knowledge of the matter noted that the refinery has no plans to raise its run rate back to 100%, as refining margins across the barrel remains poor.

** Indonesia's state-run Pertamina was heard to be keeping its Cilacap Refinery Unit IV operating at a run rate of around 80% in October, industry sources with knowledge of the matter told S&P Global Platts. "Cilacap [refinery] is keeping its rates at around 80%. Demand for gasoline has returned slightly but refining margins across the barrel is not that great to encourage the refinery to pull output level to full," one Singapore-based source said.

** Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical plans to shut its No. 3 crude distillation unit in the week starting Nov. 23 as refining margins come under further pressure, a company representative said. With the CDU shutdown, Formosa's overall refinery runs will fall to 360,000 b/d, or around 66.67% of total refining capacity. The Mailiao refinery is currently operating at 410,000 b/d, or around 76% of capacity. "We are shutting the CDU because margins are poor," the representative said, adding that operations at some secondary units have been reduced, thereby prompting the shutdown of the CDU. The restart will depend on whether refining margins improve.

** Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp plans to shut down its Tabangao refinery and transform the facility into an import terminal, the company said in a statement. The refinery has been shut since May 24, having been idled due to weak demand for domestic products.

** Philippines' Petron plans to maintain the operating rate at its 180,000 b/d Bataan refinery at 100% of capacity in November, after it restarted some of the units in September and resumed "normal" run rates in October, a source close to the company said Nov. 6. The high run rate was attributed to a steady recovery in oil product demand following the easing of lockdown measures in several regions across the Philippines, market sources said. The facility had shut its units in May for prolonged maintenance work, to mitigate the impact of low fuel demand and poor refining margins as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, S&P Global Platts had reported at the time. The company has prevously said that the Bataan plant may close should discussions regarding customs tax with the government fall through.

** New Zealand's Refining NZ has proposed lowering throughput at the country's sole refinery by 33% in 2021 in an attempt to keep the facility running at a "cash neutral" position amid ongoing discussions regarding its transition to an import terminal. The company in a statement said it was proposing to simplify operations by lowering the refinery's throughput to around 90,000 b/d or two-thirds of its capacity and ceasing bitumen production. Marsden Point refinery typically produces around 100,000-120,000 mt/year of bitumen and meets most of the country's bitumen demand, industry sources said. Against the backdrop of the simplification proposal, discussions are also continuing on plans to convert the Marsden Point refinery into an import terminal.

** Australia's second-largest refiner Viva Energy has again signaled the possible closure of its Geelong refinery, faced with thin margins and prolonged lackluster demand for refined oil products amid the extension of movement restrictions in the state of Victoria to contain a second wave of coronavirus infections. "The company is assessing other options to address operating losses, including the possibility of moving to a full shutdown of the facility," Viva Energy said in a statement on its website.

** Ampol, formally Caltex Australia, has announced the start of a "comprehensive review" of its Lytton refinery in Brisbane as a prolonged period of poor refining margins and an uncertain outlook threaten the closure of the facility. "The review will consider all options for the facility's operations and for the connected supply chains and markets it serves," Ampol said in the statement on its website. "These options include closure and permanent transition to an import model, the continuation of existing refining operations and other alternate models of operation, including the necessary investments required to execute each of the options," the company added. In addition to poor product demand as a result of movement restrictions to contain the spread of COVID-19, the company also attributed the Q3 loss to maintenance works at the refinery that had been brought forward to mid-May and extended by almost four months. The refinery restarted in early September and is expected to run at around 75% of capacity in Q4.

** The Maritime Union of Australia has urged the federal government to nationalize BP's Kwinana oil refinery, rather than allow it to be closed, as such a move would not only save many jobs, but also drastically improve Australia's fuel security. BP Australia on Oct. 30 said it was planning to shut its Kwinana refinery and convert it into a fuel import terminal, in a strategy aimed to better meet the needs of a changing oil market. The continued growth of large-scale, export-oriented refineries throughout Asia and the Middle East has structurally changed the Australian market, BP said, adding that regional oversupply and sustained low refining margins mean the Kwinana refinery is no longer economically viable.

** Vietnam's Nghi Son refinery will keep its operating run rate above 100% of capacity in the near term, unchanged from August, even as a buildup of inventories put domestic buyers under pressure, industry sources with close knowledge of the matter said. Nghi-Son refinery in a rare move has emerged in the Asian spot market to offer cargoes of motor fuel as domestic inventories build steadily amid high refinery run rates, adding to supply pressure in weak regional gasoline and gasoil markets. However, run rates remain high despite Dung Quat having restarted at end September. "The [Nghi Son] refinery is still running very hard. There are more than enough inventories," one Vietnam based source said. "Dung Quat should also be running at a very high run rate; their normal is usually above 100% too," the source added.

** Thailand's PTT Global Chemical plans to raise run rates at its refinery in Map Ta Phut to over 90% in December, from 80%-90% in November, due to improving margins, a source close to the matter said Nov. 24.

In other news,

** Vietnam's gasoline imports rebounded to a three-month high in October, almost doubling on month as the country's COVID-19 situation came under control, spurring greater economic and driving activity.

** Thailand imported 792,600 b/d of crude and condensate in October, a 50.8% jump from a year earlier, with demand for light sweet crude from the US and Nigeria picking up sharply after the restart of the country's Rayong refinery. A sharp monthly increase in Thailand's refinery feedstock imports from its major light sweet crude suppliers including the US and Nigeria stood out, with state-run refiner and upstream company PTT indicating that the country is in need of replenishing some light and middle distillates stocks after refinery runs fell sharply late in the third quarter. In mid-October, PTT's subsidiary IRPC Public Co. Ltd. competed repairs to its Rayong refinery and restarted units that were shut in early September due to a fire. The operating rate of the Rayong refinery averaged 88% over the first half of 2020, down from the 94% in H1 2019. With the units back online, however, market participants expect operating rates at the facility to be steadily increased to at least 80% of capacity, matching levels prior to the fire.

NEW AND ONGOING MAINTENANCE

UPGRADES

LAUNCHES

New and ongoing maintenance

New and revised entries

Asia-Pacific

** Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical restarted its 80,500 b/d No. 1 residue desulfurization unit and 84,000 b/d residue fluid catalytic cracker at Mailiao from turnaround on Nov. 10. The RDS was operating at 64,000 b/d or around 80% of capacity after the restart, and operations were to be ramped up to full tilt. Formosa's No. 2 RDS was shut July 15 after a fire, with the restart planned for April 2021 at the earliest, S&P Global Platts reported previously. The company's two RFCCs are now both operating at 57,000 b/d, or 75% of capacity. "The RFCCs are being run at maximum propylene mode. Based on this mode, the maximum operating capacity is 76,000 b/d," a source said.

** Taiwan's state-run CPC plans to shut the crude distillation unit at its Taoyuan refinery for 45 days' maintenance from mid-December, a source with knowledge of the matter said. The shutdown of this CDU will overlap with maintenance at another CDU at CPC's Dalin refinery.

** Taiwan's CPC is currently conducting maintenance at a 100,000 b/d CDU at its Dalin refinery that began earlier in November and will take 60 days to complete.

Existing entries

Asia-Pacific

** Viva Energy, Australia's second-largest refiner, said it was delaying planned maintenance at its hydrofluoric acid alkylation unit to 2021 from later this year. The refinery will raise its run rates from early November following the scheduled completion of works at the residual catalytic cracking unit in late October, it said in a quarterly update.

** South Korea's SK Energy's Ulsan has shut its No. 3 crude distillation unit with a capacity of 170,000 b/d since late-September, earlier than original schedule of maintenance, for an unfixed period to lower crude run rate in response to poor refining margins amid the protracted coronavirus pandemic. The refiner originally planned to close the No. 3 CDU for maintenance for several weeks in the fourth quarter, but has shut it earlier than schedule to cope with falling refining margins. The company has also shut its 80,000 b/d No. 2 RHDS, or residue hydro-desulfurization unit, since mid-October for maintenance for about a month. "With the No. 3 CDU remaining offline, SK Energy's crude run rate has stayed under 80%," a source said.

** New Zealand's Marsden Point will undergo a scheduled turnaround at its No.1 crude distillation unit and continuous catalytic reforming platformer in 2021 that had been originally planned for 2020, the duration of which could not be confirmed.

** Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. will be shutting down its Tabangao refinery, transforming the facility into an import terminal, the company said in a statement released on its website Aug. 13. The refinery has been shut since May 24, having been idled due to weak domestic product demand.

** Sri Lankan Ceylon Petroleum Corp.'s Sapugaskanda refinery in 2021 is slated to undergo "a predicted full shutdown [that] is scheduled every two years generally," the company said in the statement. The exact period and duration of the turnaround has yet to be announced.

Upgrades

Existing entries

** Two separate consortiums have submitted bids for the engineering, procurement and construction contract to build, upgrade and expand project of Dung Quat refinery in central Vietnam, Dung Quat's operator Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical said. They is a consortium of Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. and Hyundai Engineering Co., Ltd.; and consortium of Technip Italy, Technip Geoproduction (M) Sdn Bhd, Technip France, PetroVietnam Technical Services Corp. and Vietnam's Lilama Corp. BSR said the upgrade and expansion project on 108 hectares will cost $1.8 billion. It will raise the capacity of Dung Quat to 8.5 million mt/year from current 6.5 million mt/year. The project will enable the refinery to diversify its crude inputs and meet Euro-V standards for its fuels.

** Pakistan's Attock Refinery has planned to install a hydrocracking facility, Attock Refinery Limited told analysts Oct. 27. An international consultant would be hired for finalizing the terms of the investment. The company is in talks with the government for setting up joint upgrade projects including the hydrocracking facility and also mandatory lifting of local refineries' products by the oil marketing companies. Attock Refinery is considering two upgrade projects, including the hydrocracker as well as a Continuous Catalyst Regeneration (CCR), the company's officials told the analysts. After the implementation of these projects, Attock Refinery would be able to produce Euro V compliant gasoline and diesel along with full conversion of naphtha into mogas.

** The Pakistan National Refinery has issued shares in order to upgrade and expand the plant into a deep conversion refinery, according to market sources and company documents. The proceeds will be used to revamp units and increase the gasoline and diesel yield.

** Pakistan's Byco Petroleum Pakistan said it plans to build an aromatics plant with a capacity of 27,300 b/d to produce benzene, mixed xylene, paraxylene, orthoxylene, C9 and raffinate.

** State-run Indian Oil Corp-owned Gujarat refinery's capacity expansion project is set to be over by Sept.30 2024, company officials said, a delay of one and a half years from the previous deadline. The delay is primarily due to the rescheduling of the project execution timelines for the pending projects as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The initial deadline for the capacity expansion project was contemplated for 2020. The expansion plan will help the refinery on the west coast to process cheaper heavy crude grades and improve profitability. The refinery with its expanded capacities would process crude grades from Kuwait, Basrah light (Iraq), Mangla from Rajasthan, and local grades from the oil fields of north and south of Gujarat. Under the expansion project, the existing smaller capacity atmospheric unit and vacuum units will be replaced by a large atmospheric vacuum unit (AVU) for raising the operational efficiency of the refinery. The project also involves a revamp of the existing hydrogen generation unit for the production of syngas and hydrogen, a new n-butanol processing unit and a revamp of the linear alkylbenzenes (LAB) unit.

** Indian Oil Corp. owned Paradip refinery will install the first stage of a Grassroot Needle Coker Unit by using its own in-house technology. The proposed unit will have a Calcined Needle Coke, or CNC, production capacity of 56 kilotons/year. Currently, the entire Needle Coke requirement of the country (80-100 kilotons/year) is met via imports. The company does not plan any expansion for its Paradip refinery, whose overall capacity is 15 million mt/yr.

** HPCL's $3.2 billion project to expand Vizag's capacity to 300,000 b/d is in advance stage of completion, company officials said. Originally, the expansion project was scheduled for completion in July 2020. But officials did not provide any specific timeframe for the completion of the project. The project aims to install primary processing units such as a CDU, replacing one of the three existing CDUs, a hydrocracker, and a naphtha isomerization unit.

** IOC's refinery in the western state Gujarat will have the largest capacity among its portfolio of refineries by 2022-23, company officials said. IOC plans to raise the capacity of the Gujarat refinery to 360,000 b/d by March 2023 from the current 275,000 b/d.

** IOC plans to expand the atmospheric and vacuum unit at its Barauni refinery to boost its overall capacity to 9 million mt/year by 2021.

** Reliance Industries Ltd. has received clearance to raise the capacity of its export-oriented Jamnagar refinery on the west coast of India by 17% to 41 million mt (820,000 b/d). By 2030, RIL aims to raise its total refining capacity -- including its domestic-focused refinery -- at Jamnagar to 98.2 million mt/year. Reliance currently is 1.37 million b/d, of it 707,000 b/d for the export and 660,000 b/d domestic. The export one will increase capacity to 820,000 b/d. By 2030, it aims to raise its overall capacity to 1.96 million b/d.

** India's IOC plans to raise the capacity of its Panipat refinery to 25 million mt/year by 2021 to meet growing demand for oil products. The refinery's capacity is 15 million mt/year.

** India's cabinet has approved a project to expand the capacity of the Numaligarh refinery to 9 million mt/year from 3 million mt/year.

** Nayara Energy is seeking the renewal of environmental approval to double capacity at its Vadinar refinery as the previous approval had been given to Essar Oil. It had planned to double the refining capacity at Vadinar to 40 million mt/year.

** IOC has signed up energy technology and infrastructure solutions provider CB&I for a residue upgrading unit at its Mathura refinery in north India.

** Hengyi Industries plans to more than double the capacity at its integrated refinery and aromatics complex in Brunei to around 455,000 b/d, from its current 160,000 b/d, over three years. The expansion will raise the refinery's gasoline output by 2.55 million mt/year, gasoil by 1.94 million mt/year, jet fuel by 1.84 million mt/year and LPG by 190,000 mt/year. The refinery currently has a combined gasoline, diesel and jet fuel output of around 6 million mt/year. There are also plans to increase olefin/polyolefin production capacity.

** Indonesia's Pertamina is planning to build a petrochemical plant at its Balongan refinery in West Java and will cooperate in the project with Taiwan's CPC. The project is expected to be completed in 2026. Pertamina will build the project in three phases. The first phase is to increase refining capacity from to 150,000 b/d by 2022 from 125,000 b/d currently. The second and third phase will increase the product yield from the refinery, including from the new petrochemical plant. Under the plan, Pertamina and CPC will build a naphtha cracker that is expected to substitute imports. The naphtha cracker will produce at least 1 million mt/year of ethylene. Pertamina is also cooperating with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) in the Balongan refinery project.

** Hyundai Engineering has won a $2.17 billion deal to upgrade the Balikpapan refinery in Indonesia. Hyundai Engineering will "be responsible for the engineering, procurement and construction for the facility upgrade," which would take 53 months for completion and increase the refinery's capacity from 260,000 b/d to 360,000 b/d. Completion was expected in 2023. Separately, Indonesia's Pertamina and Mubadala signed a Refinery Investment Principle Agreement to evaluate any possibility to cooperate in processing sector, including to accelerate Pertamina's Balikpapan project that is expected to require about $5.5 billion of investment.

** Indonesia's state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina will use Honeywell UOP technologies to produce advanced biofuels at its Plaju and Cilacap refineries. Honeywell said. "Pertamina chose to work with UOP to build a greenfield biorefinery at Plaju and revamp its Cilacap refinery," Honeywell said. The biorefinery in Plaju will produce 20,000 b/d of vegetable oils and fat to produce renewable jet fuel, renewable diesel fuel and green LPG at the Plaju refinery. The Cilacap refinery will be revamped to process 6,000 b/d of vegetable oils and fats to produce advanced biofuels. Separately, Pertamina will go ahead and revamp its Cilacap refinery without Saudi Aramco, raising capacity from 348,000 b/d to 370,000 b/d. The company had signed a heads of agreement on the revamp project in November 2015 with the Saudi oil major, but Aramco did not accept the figure that Pertamina had given on asset valuation, Platts has reported. Pertamina now plans to find other partners to work on the project. Originally the project was expected to be completed in 2022 but now it may be delayed to 2023. After the project is completed, Pertamina will be able to produce an additional 80,000 b/d of gasoline, 60,000 b/d of diesel and 40,000 b/d of jet fuel from Cilacap. The project includes increasing the crude distillation unit's capacity; raising the residual fluid catalytic cracking unit's capacity from 62,000 b/d to 81,000 b/d and adding a new 43,000 b/d hydro cracking unit.

** SK Energy has delayed full operation at its newly built 40,000 b/d desulfurization unit due to "deterioration in market conditions" in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The refiner completed mechanical construction of the vacuum residue desulfurization, or VRDS, unit on January 31, three months ahead of original schedule, to supply IMO 2020 low sulfur marine fuels to the market. The company previously aimed to start commercial production by the end of March.

** At Thailand's Bangchak Petroleum an expansion plan is under way to ramp up the 120,000 b/d refinery's production capacity to 140,000 b/d, through installation of a continuous catalyst regeneration unit. Under the expansion plan, the company will also debottleneck the hydrocracker, which could expand the refinery's production capacity by 10%.

** Saudi Aramco and S-Oil signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on a $6 billion steam cracker and olefin downstream project at Onsan due for completion in 2024, which will produce ethylene and other basic chemicals from naphtha and off-gas.

** ExxonMobil announced a final investment decision at its Singapore complex. The project includes an expansion aimed at converting "fuel oil and other bottom-of-the-barrel crude products into higher-value lube base stocks and distillates." Startup is set for 2023. The expansion will add capacity to increase cleaner fuels output with lower sulfur content by 48,000 b/d.

** Petron plans to expand and upgrade its Bataan refinery in Limay, increasing its capacity by 55% to produce 75,000 b/d of refined products and 1 million mt/year of aromatics. There was no timeline for when the expansion will take place. The refinery's capacity will be increased by 100,000 b/d of condensates and light crude oils, from current capacity of 180,000 b/d.

** The Philippines' Petron Corp. has been considering a plan to more than double capacity at its 88,000 b/d Port Dickson refinery in Malaysia to 178,000 b/d.

Launches

New and revised entries

** Malaysia's Pengerang Refining and Petrochemical, also known as PRefChem, is scheduled for a Q1 2021 start-up, Petronas said Nov. 18. The start which was initially scheduled for September has been delayed to early 2021, S&P Global Platts reported previously. After a March fire at a diesel unit at Malaysia's PRefChem refinery, also known as RAPID, all facilities were in shutdown, Platts reported at the time. This was the second major incident at the Pengerang Integrated Complex, which was started up in Q3 2019. In April 2019, there was an explosion and fire at the atmospheric residue desulfurization unit when the refinery was in the commissioning stage.

Existing entries

** India's proposed new 1.2 million b/d Ratnagiri refinery on the west coast is still facing delay due to "local issues", the country's Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Minister of Steel Dharmendra Pradhan said Oct. 13. Construction at the site was expected to start this year but there have been issues relating to land acquisition which had stalled the project. The location of the project has already moved once, from Ratnagiri district to Raigad district. The refinery is now expected to be commissioned in 2025, according to industry sources.

** Chennai Petroleum Corp. Ltd's proposed 9 million mt refinery at Cauvery Basin in South India has received clearance from an environment ministry panel, company officials said. The refinery project has been approved by CPCL's parent company Indian Oil Corp., India's No.1 state-owned refiner. IOC holds a 51.89% share in CPCL. The proposed project will be a state-of-the-art modern refinery cum petrochemical project, including a polypropylene unit. The refinery will have capacities to produce around 4 million mt/year diesel, 1.8 million mt/y gasoline, both Euro 6 grades and 0.6 million m/y of LPG, and 0.3 million mt/y jet fuel. The refinery will be designed to process 50% each of a mix of Basrah Light, Basrah Heavy grades and 100% with respect to Iranian Light. CPCL currently operates two refineries with a combined capacity of 11.5 million mt/year in Tamil Nadu.

** Pak-Arab Oil Refinery Limited will start physical works on its coastal refinery in H1 2021, after almost 13-years of consecutive delays to the project, industry sources with close knowledge of the matter said. Following the start of the works, the refinery is expected to come online in 2025-2026, and will increase the country's refining capacity by 250,000 b/d. PARCO also operates the 100,000 b/d Mid-Country Refinery in Mahmoodkot. The project for the coastal refinery was approved in 2007, but construction was subsequently delayed due to issues regarding funding.

** Infrastructure for Mongolia's first refinery in Dornogobi (Dornogovi) has been completed with construction of the groundwork for the refinery's site underway, according to local media report. It is operated by the state owned Mongolian Oil Refinery. Mongolia's first refinery is expected to reach full capacity by 2026, S&P Global Platts has previously reported.

** Indonesia's Pertamina decided to postpone the construction of a proposed 300,000 b/d Bontang refinery in East Kalimantan, a senior official said. "Bontang is still on the list, but currently we are focusing on the existing ones," Pertamina's mega project refinery and petrochemical director Ignatius Tallulembang said, adding that upgrading the existing refineries is "our priority". Ignatius Tallulembang said that the construction has been going on "but our partner stopped. So we hold the project while we are assessing more detail on oil supply and demand. If everything is clear, we will discuss again with our stake holders." The proposed refinery is targeted to produce at least 60,000 b/d of gasoline and 124,000 b/d of diesel and the products will meet Euro IV specifications, with Pertamina prioritizing domestic marketing first.

** A Rosneft and Pertamina joint venture has signed a contract with Spanish Tecnicas Reunidas to design the construction of an oil refinery and petrochemical complex in Tuban, Indonesia, Rosneft said. Commissioning of the plant in East Java is expected within the next five years. Primary processing design capacity is planned at up to 15 million mt/year, planned capacity at the petrochemical complex includes more than 1 million mt/year for ethylene and 1.3 million mt/year for aromatic hydrocarbons.

** Sri Lanka has approved a $20 billion refinery project at the port town of Hambantota. The announcement follows the inauguration of a smaller refinery complex at the port, which has backing from the Oman Oil Company.

** Iran remains open to investing in a planned expansion project by Chennai Petroleum Corp Ltd to set up a 180,000 b/d refinery at Cauvery Basin at Nagapattinam, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadhu, Indian oil ministry officials said. IOC holds a 51.9% share in CPCL, while NIOC holds 15.4% through Swiss subsidiary Naftiran Intertrade.

** Global trader Vitol is looking to build a 30,000 b/d refinery in southern Malaysia's Johor state. The project involves a simple refinery to be built at Tanjung Bin at VTTI's ATB tank farm. ATB, or ATT Tanjung Bin Sdn Bhd, is a terminal 100% owned by VTTI. Vitol co-owns VTTI.

** Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd.'s proposal to invest $4.05 billion in an integrated refinery and petrochemicals facility in Balasore, India, has been granted approval by the Odisha government.

** Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are in talks to develop a 200,000-300,000 b/d refinery in Balochistan's Gwadar district for $10 billion.

** A new HPCL project in Barmer, India, is due for completion by March 2023.

** India's big refinery project in Maharashtra, being developed by state-owned IOC, HPCL and BPCL, will start up around 2022-23.