REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: Chinese plants run as planned in Dec after higher Nov runs

The reemergence of COVID-19 in China's Ningbo city, which houses state-owned oil and gas major Sinopec's flagship 27 million mt/year Zhenhai Petrochemical refinery, will have little effect on the country's crude throughput in December because of its rigorous efforts to contain infections, refining sources and analysts said.

Zhenhai Petrochemical plans to process 1.9 million mt of crude in December, with 83% utilization of its nameplate capacity, according the source. The operating rate is lower than 86% in October and November, when Sinopec had raised oil product supplies to meet domestic demand.

China's throughput is expected to slow in December, as domestic demand for oil products will see a seasonal lull due to winter, after high throughput in October and November boosted product inventories.

China's crude throughput in November rose 5.5% to a five-month high of 14.57 million b/d, National Bureau of Statistics data released Dec. 15 showed, as refineries strived to increase domestic oil product supplies.

It was the first time China's monthly crude throughput moved above 14 million b/d since July, the data showed.

On a metric tons basis, the volume in November rose 2.1% month on month to 59.64 million mt.

The country's throughput averaged 14.15 million b/d over the first 11 months of the year, up 5.2% year on year.

Separately, Japan's refinery run rates rose further to 83.3% over Dec. 5-11 from 80.6% the week before as refiners raised crude throughput by 3.3% over the same period to 2.88 million b/d, Petroleum Association of Japan data released Dec. 15 showed.

NEW AND ONGOING MAINTENANCE

UPGRADES

LAUNCHES

Near-term maintenance

New and revised entries

China

** Sinochem shut the 12 million mt/year CDU and related refining units at its Quanzhou Petrochemical on Dec. 1 for scheduled maintenance, a company source said. The petrochemical production units were being gradually shut over Dec. 2-3, the source said, adding that the maintenance will last for 40-50 days.

Japan

** Japan's Cosmo Oil restarted the 75,000 b/d No. 1 CDU at its 177,000 b/d Chiba refinery in Tokyo Bay Nov. 19 after completing a scheduled turnaround. The works started Oct. 19.

Existing entries

China

** Sinopec's Guangzhou Petrochemical shut an 8 million mt/year CDU for maintenance from late-October until early-December. The original plan was to shut the unit from mid-October.

** Sinopec's Gaoqiao Petrochemical has shut its entire refinery for maintenance from Oct. 8 until early-December.

** Sinopec's Fujian Refining and Petrochemical has shut a 4 million mt/year CDU and some secondary units for maintenance from Nov. 10 until Jan. 11.

** Sinopec's Hainan Petrochemical refinery in southern China plans to completely shut for scheduled maintenance over March-April 2022, a source with the refinery said. This is a routine maintenance that is normally carried out by Chinese refineries every three to four years, according to the source. Sinopec Hainan refinery last carried out complete maintenance over November 2017-January 2018.

Japan

** Japan's Idemitsu Kosan shut the sole 160,000 b/d crude distillation unit at its Aichi refinery in central Japan on Sept. 14 for planned maintenance. This is a large-scale turnaround carried out once every four years, and the suspension period ranges from two to three months.

** Japan's ENEOS said it will decommission the 120,000 b/d No. 1 CDU at its 270,000 b/d Negishi refinery in Tokyo Bay in October 2022. It will also decommission secondary units attached to the No. 1 CDU, including a vacuum distillation unit and fluid catalytic cracker. ENEOS will also decommission a 270,000 mt/year lubricant output unit at the Negishi refinery.

Upgrades

Existing entries

** Chinese Sinopec's refinery Zhenhai Refining and Chemical currently has a 27 million mt/year refining capacity and a 2.2 million mt/year ethylene plant, after its phase 1 expansion project of 4 million mt/year crude distillation unit and a 1.2 million mt/year ethylene unit was delivered end-June. The company aims to grow its refining capacity to 60 million mt/year and 7 million mt/year of ethylene by 2030.

** PetroChina's Guangxi Petrochemical in southern Guangxi province plans to start construction at its upgrading projects at the end of 2021, with the works set to take 36 months. The projects include upgrading the existing refining units as well as setting up new petrochemical facilities, which will turn the refinery into a refining and petrochemical complex. The project will focus on upgrading two existing units: the 2.2 million mt/year wax oil hydrocracker and the 2.4 million mt/year gasoil hydrogenation refining unit. For the petrochemicals part, around 11 main units will be constructed, which include a 1.2 million mt/year ethylene cracker.

** Sinopec's Changling Petrochemical in central Hunan province plans to start construction for its newly approved 1 million mt/year reformer in 2021 and to bring its port upgrading project online by end-December.

** Japan's Idemitsu Kosan plans to start work on raising the residue cracking capacity at its 45,000 b/d FCC at Chiba.

** China's Sinopec Luoyang Petrochemical expects the start-up of the 2 million mt/year CDU expansion to be delayed.

** Axens said its Paramax technology has been selected by state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp. for the petrochemical expansion at the plant. The project aims at increasing the high-purity aromatics production capacity to 3 million mt/year. The new aromatics complex will produce 1.5 million mt/year of paraxylene in a single train.

** Construction of a new 1 million mt/year coker at Chinese independent refinery Haiyou Petrochemical, in eastern Shandong, has been put on hold.

** Sinopec's Jinling Petrochemical refinery in eastern China will build a new 600,000 mt/year vacuum distillation unit.

Launches

Existing entries

** China's Shenghong Petrochemical, a privately-held refining complex, is unlikely to start trial runs in November due to slower-than-expected construction work, which led to delays in the delivery of facilities, a company source said. The greenfield refining complex is more likely to start by end December, the source added. The construction of the complex started in December 2018.

** Saudi Aramco continues to pursue and develop the integrated refining and petrochemical complex in China with Norinco Group and Panjin Sinchen. The joint venture plans to build an integrated refining and petrochemical complex in northeast China's Liaoning province Panjin city with a 300,000 b/d refinery, 1.5 million mt/year ethylene cracker and a 1.3 million mt/year PX unit.

** Chinese privately owned refining and petrochemical complex Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical is scheduled to start up the second 10 million mt/year CDU at its 20 million mt/year Phase 2 project. It launched the first CDU of the second phase expansion project in November 2020. The refinery first came online in December 2019.

** Honeywell said China's Shandong Yulong Petrochemical will use "advanced platforming and aromatics technologies" from Honeywell UOP at its integrated petrochemical complex. The complex will include a UOP naphtha Unionfining unit, CCR Platforming technology to convert naphtha into high-octane gasoline and aromatics, Isomar isomerization technology. When completed Yulong plans to produce 3 million mt/yr of mixed aromatics. Shandong's independent greenfield refining complex, Yulong Petrochemical announced the start of construction work at Yulong Island in Yantai city at the end of October 2020.

Construction work is expected to be completed in 24 months. The complex has been set up with the aim of consolidating the outdated capacities in Shandong province. A total of 10 independent refineries, with a total capacity of 27.5 million mt/year, will be mothballed over the next three years. Jinshi Petrochemical, Yuhuang Petrochemical and Zhonghai Fine Chemical, Yuhuang Petrochemical and Zhonghai Fine Chemical will be dismantled, while Jinshi Asphalt has already finished dismantling.

** PetroChina officially started construction works at its greenfield 20 million mt/year Guangdong petrochemical refinery in the southern Guangdong province on Dec. 5, 2018.

** China's coal chemical producer Xuyang Group has announced plans to build a greenfield 15 million mt/year refining and petrochemical complex in Tangshang in central Hebei province.