REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: Maintenance in Europe going ahead

London — Seasonal refinery maintenance is set to begin or already underway in the Mediterranean and Northwest Europe.

For the moment refineries are not reducing throughput but maintenance works have been ramped up.

European refiners are expected to maximize crude runs, despite coronavirus hitting demand for their fuels, in a bid to lock in surging refining margins as a result of the oil price rout. But moves to process cheap crude may be short-lived as oil product storage tanks reach capacity and fuel demand continues to slump on expanding travel curbs, according to regional trading sources. Refiners are now looking at some of the biggest margins in months, just a week after they'd been considering run cuts to mitigate operating losses.

Italy's key oil refining and distribution infrastructure was operating as normal last week after the recent nationwide lockdown on non-essential activities to prevent the spread of COVID-19, sources said. Notwithstanding the government measures, energy, including crude and gas operations, have been deemed to be strategic activities and, as such, are being maintained operational as usual at least for the time being, trade union sources said. In terms of refineries, "at the moment, there are no interruptions in production at plants" tied to the government-measures aimed at combating COVID-19, "and the sector continues to provide supply in line with obligatory guaranteed services outlined by Italian civil protection services during periods of emergency," a spokesman for Unione Petrolifera said. Unione Petrolifera also said refinery plant operators were operating as planned.

Operations at Sarroch's refinery in Sardinia are currently unaffected by the recent government decree that has placed the entire nation in lockdown as the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak continues to climb, a source close to the refinery told S&P Global Platts.

Separately, Germany's Heide refinery aims for 5% of the jet fuel it supplies to Hamburg airport to be synthetic kerosene by 2024. The refinery has a memorandum of understanding signed with Deutsche Lufthansa for the future production and supply of the synthetic fuel. The refinery is also working towards a low-carbon future and is conducting research on the production of green hydrogen as well as storing hydrogen during periods of low consumption.

NEW AND ONGOING MAINTENANCE, UPGRADES

FUTURE

UPGRADES

LAUNCHES

NEAR TERM

NEW AND REVISED ENTRIES

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

--Poland's second largest refiner Grupa Lotos said its throughput in the fourth quarter of 2019 fell 6.8% year on year to 2.586 million mt thanks to the planned maintenance shutdown of its crude distillation unit. Traders reported impact from the maintenance in December.

--The FCC at Italy's Milazzo refinery on Sicily, which has been offline recently due to a glitch, is currently in the process of restart, a source close to the refinery said. The source did not indicate what the issue was or whether it was related to the maintenance on the unit. Traders reported earlier that the unit was not operational. The FCC was taken offline in October for works, but was restarted around mid January. The refinery was not available for comment. Eni noted in its Q4 report "an upset at the Milazzo refinery". The Milazzo refinery output is unaffected by lockdown measures introduced by the Italian government aimed at containing the spread of Covid-19, according to information provided by a separate source.

--The Sarpom refinery in Trecate, Italy is undergoing works to its cogen electricity generation unit for an undetermined duration, according to a person close to the plant. The maintenance and upgrade works are expected to last a "short" period, the person said, though no information was provided on an exact restart date. The Trecate refinery is currently running its operations as usual and has been largely unaffected by additional coronavirus-prevention measures introduced in Italy recently, the person added.

--Italy's Taranto refinery, which was shut late February for scheduled maintenance and upgrading works lasting approximately four weeks, is restarting operations around mid March, a source close to the refinery told S&P Global Platts. The source did not provide information as to the exact date the refinery will be fully operational, barring to say that it could take around a week. Taranto needs to bolster its refinery infrastructure ahead of the start of Tempa Rossa crude extractions in the near-by region of Basilicata.

--A unit at Shell's Pernis refinery in the Netherlands has briefly been halted due to a malfunction. Pernis is likely to start scheduled maintenance in April, earlier than planned, market sources said. The company has said previously the refinery was preparing for a major turnaround that will include several units, and will start May 4 and last through June. Pernis -- the largest refinery in Europe, with around 60 units including two CDUs -- carried out major works on 13 units last February and March.

--The API refinery in the central Italian coastal town of Falconara Marittima, which was offline due to an upgrade and maintenance, is currently restarting, a source close to the refinery told S&P Global Platts. The refinery went offline January 25. At the time, it was scheduled to undergo work for about 40 days of upgrades as the plant carried out maintenance that is required every five years. The maintenance and upgrades involved all of the refinery's main units.

--Eni's Sannazzaro de Burgondi refinery in northern Italy, where a large portion of the facility was scheduled to undergo maintenance from the middle of March onward, has put some of the units involved in "hot stop" status, which temporarily suspends activities but allows for an immediate restart if necessary, a source close to the refinery told S&P Global Platts. "At this point in time, it is not clear what the process will be going forward. They could be fully stopped to allow the maintenance work, they may be returned to full operations, or simply kept 'warm' to permit a decision to be made and permit an immediate restart," the source said. The maintenance and upgrades were originally scheduled to start around Saturday or Sunday, when the units were set to be taken fully offline. That plan has since been revised to temporarily suspend operations at the units, but keep them active in order that they can be immediately restarted if required, the source said. Part of the works will involve testing and realigning plants that are required to run in alliance with the Sannazzaro's Eni slurry technology (EST), which was damaged by a fire in 2016 and has since been undergoing repair and upgrade works, inclusive of new technology being added to it. The EST units are scheduled to restart towards the end of March, the source said.

EXISTING ENTRIES

--The shutdown procedure at a unit of France's Grandpuits refinery in early March has resulted in an odor of hydrocarbons, the refinery said.

--Italy's Sarroch refinery in Sardinia started a scheduled heavy maintenance cycle in early March that will put the plant offline for around two months as upgrades are carried out. Sarroch's fluid catalytic cracker, alkylation unit and Topping 1 plant will carry out works usually carried out every six years between the first and the second quarter of the year. In addition, the refinery plans to also carry out ordinary maintenance on its MHC2 unit, as well as its Visbreaking plant. The refinery's U400 and U500 units will also undergo upgrades, although it is not clear when this will occur. Sarroch also plans to carry out a planned 10-year turnaround on its IGCC in 2021.

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

--The crude distillation unit at the Gonfreville refinery near Le Havre will restart before the end of the year, the company said. Traders had said earlier that the unit was offline and the plant running at minimum rates following a fire at a pump feeding crude into the distillation unit in mid-December. In February, traders said the hydrocracker had been halted.

--CDU 1 at Gunvor Rotterdam refinery is due back online shortly, according to trading sources. The second CDU is expected to be offline for works until around mid-May. Gunvor halted CDU 1 at its Rotterdam refinery in November for economic reasons and also to prepare for an upcoming turnaround in March 2020, it said previously. The company was not available for comment. The refinery has 38,000 b/d and 50,000 b/d CDU units.

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

--Lukoil's Neftochim refinery in Burgas, Bulgaria, is planning partial works in March, according to trading sources and company tender documents. The refinery is planning a major turnaround in 2021. The refinery typically carries out works around February-March.

--Germany's Ingolstadt started halting units gradually for maintenance planned from March 10-21, the company said. The main focus of the turnaround will be an inspection of the hydrogen system. Additional heat exchangers will also be installed as part of the district heating cooperation with an overall inspection of all units also planned.

--Turkey's Izmir refinery in Aliaga has reduced its buying of Siberian Light crude for March processing, trading sources said. In its latest financial report, Tupras said that work on the crude unit at Izmir, which started late last year, was set to continue for six weeks into Q1. Separately, the refinery plans works on the continuous catalytic reformer for three weeks in Q1 and seven weeks in Q4, on the FCC unit for six weeks in Q1, on the isomerization unit for eight weeks in Q4 and on the MQD diesel desulfurization unit for seven weeks in Q4. Tupras said in an investor presentation that three of its four refineries are planning works over the course of 2020. Work on the crude oil and vacuum unit at Batman is set to last five weeks over Q1 and Q2 and work on the desulfurizer at Izmit will last seven weeks over the fourth quarter.

--Petroineos' Lavera refinery in France will undergo maintenance in March, trading sources said.

--French Feyzin started works for seven weeks from February 14, according to a company statement. All units were set to be cleaned and inspected.

--Croatia's Rijeka refinery is currently undergoing partial works, according to market sources. The plant's operator, Hungary's MOL, said it was planning only small-scale maintenance across its refineries in the rest of 2020, once an ongoing turnaround at its Rijeka refinery is completed before the end of the first quarter.

--Germany's Bayernoil is carrying out works at its Neustadt site in March. The works are set to last between March 2 and April 6, the company said. Gradual shutdown started from February 25. Start-up operations are planned to start from March 26. Bayernoil consists of the Vohburg and Neustadt sites, which are closely interconnected. The refinery was taken offline for several months following an explosion at a unit at the Vohburg site and a subsequent fire on September 1, 2018. The Vohburg plant restart lasted between May and November 2019.

--Portugal's Galp Energia has started work on its Sines refinery aimed at helping the company reach its target of $1/b in extra margin by the end of the first half of 2020 when work is concluded, CEO Carlos Gomes da Silva said. The Sines refinery has scheduled regular maintenance activity for the first half of 2020 at its 43,000 b/d hydrocracker unit, which should last for 40-50 days, the company previously said.

--Planned maintenance is currently underway on several units at the Fawley refinery and the petrochemical site near Southampton, the company said. Works began on February 8 and are due to be completed in March.

--Finland's Neste will carry out a major turnaround in Porvoo in the second quarter set to last approximately 11 weeks.

--Russian energy group Lukoil's ISAB refinery in Sicily will carry out maintenance in the March-April period, a source said. ISAB has in recent months been undergoing preparatory works at its Southern plant ahead of a planned turnaround that had been expected to start towards the end of 2019. The planned work was scheduled to last 6-7 weeks. The north and south plants operate as a single refinery after the two separate units were integrated in 2007.

--Spain's Castellon has two planned maintenance periods during 2020. The first, scheduled for May will last two to three weeks and affect two distillation units, the Powerformer 1 and the HVN. In November, a second maintenance is scheduled for two to three weeks, affecting one conversion unit (treatment plant) and the 1.4 million mt/year coker.

--Repsol's Coruna started a programmed halt in early January that will run to the end of March and will include the finalization of three CO2 emission reduction projects at the 1.7 million cu m/yr fluid catalytic cracker, among other work. Repsol will invest Eur64 million in the work. The work will mean halting six of the refinery's conversion units one by one. Project G-52 will be directed towards energy efficiency and CO2 reduction, while G-53 will reduce the atmospheric particle emissions from the unit. At the same time, project G-54 will involve the installation of a new compressor in the gas recovery unit and the substitution of steam turbines for electric motors in both that unit and the FCC.

--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

--The next large scale maintenance at France's Grandpuits will be held in 2021, the refinery said. The maintenance will include cleaning and repair of units, as well as works to improve performance.

EXISTING ENTRIES

--Germany's Mineraloelraffinerie Oberrhein (Miro) will carry out a major turnaround in 2021. It will invest Eur300 million ($332.6 million), with two-thirds going on new projects and a third for upgrading the existing plants during the turnaround.

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

--Two months of maintenance at the Sarpom refinery in Trecate, Italy, originally scheduled for October 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.

--Total will invest Eur150 million ($164 million) at its Leuna refinery in Germany. The investment into an upgrade project aims to reduce the production of heavy products and increase the production of methanol, which is an important feedstock for the chemical industry. This will deepen the integration of the refinery and the petrochemical operations. Work will continue until 2021, with the major part done in the 2020 major shutdown of the refinery.

--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

--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, the 227,000 b/d Izmit, 239,000 b/d Izmir and 108,000 b/d 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. Work on the project began last year and is expected to be completed this year. 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. "Choosing the technology and signing the contract for basic engineering design for the advanced bioethanol plant is an important step towards the final investment decision," Stjepan Nikolic, Operating Director of Refining and Marketing, INA, said in a statement. Axens' Futurol technology would enable INA to produce 55,000 mt, equivalent to 70 million liters of advanced ethanol, the statement said. In December, Hungary MOL's Croatian affiliate INA made a final investment decision to carry out a residue upgrade project at the Rijeka refinery. The project includes building a delayed coker. MOL said the Sisak refinery will be converted into a bitumen production site and logistics hub. The facility may also produce lubricants and bio-fuel components too, subject to further investment decisions.

--Poland's second largest refiner Grupa Lotos said that it discontinued the production of high-sulfur fuel oil thanks to the completion of the refinery's EFRA modernization program with the startup of the delayed coking unit in December. The key elements of the EFRA project are the coking complex, comprising the delayed coking unit, coker naphtha hydrotreating unit, and coke storage and logistics facility. Other new units are the hydrogen generation unit, hydrowax vacuum distillation unit, and the oxygen generation unit. Many existing units have also been upgraded and have increased production capacities. The EFRA units will turn out approximately 900,000 mt of high-margin fuels annually without the need to increase crude throughput levels. Lotos said the separate modernization of the hydrogen recovery unit to increase the production of hydrogen, LPG and naphtha is scheduled to be completed in the first half of this year. It is also looking at developing a hydrocracker unit for the production of base oils.

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

--A construction of a new diesel hydrodesulrization unit at France's Donges has started, local media reported citing Total. The upgrade will go alongside the rail bypass which has been the main requirement for the refinery's upgrade to proceed. The new unit will be operational in 2023. Kinetics Technology said in a statement it has 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.

EXISTING UNITS

--Unipetrol will build a pyrolytic unit for waste-plastic processing at its plant in Litvinov. In it, it will be looking into chemical plastic recycling and the possibility of implementing it in standard production in the next three years. 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.

--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.

--Repsol has not yet confirmed if it had started work on a lubricants unit at the Cartagena refinery Ilboc plant alongside South Korean partner SKSol, after the environmental go-ahead was received at the end of November from the regional government. It will invest Eur300 million over the next four years increasing the capacity of the lubricants unit and increasing production of second generation biofuels.

--Greece's Motor Oil Hellas has awarded an EPC contract to TechnipFMC for the construction of a new naphtha treatment complex at its Corinth refinery. The new complex, which will contribute to increased production of gasoline, kerosene and hydrogen, is scheduled for completion in 2021. The complex with 22,000 b/d capacity will include three units: naphtha hydrotreater, platformer and isomerization, the statement said.

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

--Repsol's Coruna will shut the calcination unit at the start of 2020 due to technological obsolescence. During the course of 2020, a new distillation unit will be installed to produce polymer grade propylene. The unit should come online by the end of 2020.

--Bosnia's Brod refinery will start production from the middle of 2020 by which time its reconstruction will be completed. The refinery is currently being reconstructed. A pipeline, currently 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 currently 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 company plans to construct a hydrocracker at the site. The upgrades are targeted for completion by 2022. Separately, Cepsa will revamp Isomax, fluid catalytic cracker, alkylation units at San Roque and will construct a methylene unit (Sorbex II).

--Germany's Schwedt is upgrading its aromatics complex.

--The Netherlands' Zeeland refinery has had the third reactor for the hydrocracker's expansion delivered. The refinery started work mid-2018 on an expansion of the hydrocracker, by working to add the third reactor. The reactor will be connected to the existing installation in 2020.

--Germany's Rhineland has started the construction of a new hydrogen production plant, using electrolysis, at its Wesseling site. The Eur16 million investment project, due for completion in 2020, will generate hydrogen from electricity rather than natural gas, and thus also contribute to reduced CO2 emissions. It will produce up to 1,300 mt/year hydrogen when operating at peak rates. The 327,000 b/d refinery consists of the Wesseling (south) and Godorf (north) sites. Separately, the refinery has received permission to start construction of a new power plant at Godorf. The new plant is scheduled to go on stream in 2021. As part of the modernization, Shell is converting the power plant from oil to gas.

--ExxonMobil said it has "made a final investment decision to expand" the Fawley refinery in the UK to increase production of ULSD by 45%, or 38,000 b/d. The more than $1 billion investment includes a hydrotreater to remove sulfur from diesel, supported by a hydrogen plant. The construction, subject to a local planning approval, was set to begin in late 2019 with start-up 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.

--Total is considering building intermediate feedstock desulfurization units and a hydrogen unit at France's Donges, but the investment depends on rerouting a railroad track that currently crosses 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 currently works on average no more than three days a month. As a result of the mothballing seven people would lose their jobs, but would be offered other jobs within the organization, the company said.

LAUNCHES

EXISTING ENTRIES

--Dutch Hes International (former Hestya Energy) aims to start operations at the LSFO plant at the currently closed Wilhelmshaven refinery in Germany in Q1 2020, it said. The Netherlands-based company had previously said it would operate the VDU unit under a tolling agreement. According to traders, the vacuum distillation unit will be used for producing low sulfur fuel oil to meet the 2020 International Maritime Organization requirement for low sulfur bunker fuel. ConocoPhillips sold the facility on Germany's North Sea coast to Hestya in 2011. The refinery has been idle since October 2009 when it was mothballed on poor margins after a maintenance program was completed on the site.

--Preliminary work for 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.