China’s private refining complex, Shenghong Petrochemical, is likely to receive its first crude cargo in late October, according to trade sources Oct. 15.
However, there is no update regarding the trial date at Shenghong. Market sources said they expect the trial run to start in H2 November, delayed from the original plan of Aug. 26.
“All depends on the construction status at the project,” said a company source, who placed the trial date at the end of the year.
In other news, PetroChina’s Dalian Petrochemical in northeastern Liaoning province will cut product exports in October by 42% on the month to 240,000 mt due to quota shortage, sources with knowledge of the matter said. In October, the refinery plans to export 80,000 mt of gasoline, gasoil and jet fuel each, down by 54%, 33.3%, 33.3%, respectively from last month. The crude throughputs at Dalian Petrochemical will be around 1.3 million mt in October, or 75% of its nameplate capacity — which has been stable since July, but much lower compared with around 85% in June.
PetroChina’s Liaohe Petrochemical plans to export 120,000 mt of low sulfur fuel oil in October, according to a market source with knowledge of the matter.
Liaohe Petrochemical has been one of the biggest producers of LSFO under PetroChina, which produces about half of PetroChina’s total output. Last year, it had produced 860,000 mt of the fuel.
PetroChina’s Jinzhou Petrochemical refinery in northeastern Liaoning province plans to export around 75,000 mt of oil products in October, according to a source with close knowledge of the matter. The refinery will export 35,000 mt of gasoline and 40,000 mt of low sulfur fuel oil in the month, with no gasoil exports planned due to relatively good domestic demand, the source said.
NEW AND ONGOING MAINTENANCE
UPGRADES
LAUNCHES
Near-term maintenance
New and revised entries
Japan
** Japanese refiner Fuji Oil restarted the fire-hit 33,000 b/d vacuum residue thermal cracking unit at its Sodegaura refinery in Tokyo Bay on Oct. 12, a spokesperson said Oct. 14. Although a fire caused by an earthquake forced the secondary unit to stop, the scale of damage was small and the repair work was completed in a short period of time, the spokesperson said. The magnitude 5.9 earthquake hit northwestern Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo, at a depth of 75 km at 10:41 pm local time Oct. 7, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. Only the unit stopped due to the earthquake, and the sole crude distillation unit has been operating normally and the waterborne and rack shipments of oil products have continued.
Existing entries
Japan
** Japan’s has shut the sole 127,500 b/d crude distillation unit at its Wakayama refinery Sept. 21 until the end of November for scheduled maintenance.
** 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 Cosmo Oil plans to shut the 75,000 b/d No. 1 crude distillation unit at its 177,000 b/d Chiba refinery in Tokyo Bay in early October until early November for scheduled maintenance. Cosmo Oil will also shut No. 1 residue desulfurization unit with 36,000 b/d capacity.
** 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.
China
** Sinochem’s Quanzhou refinery will shut for an overall turnaround in November.
** Sinopec’s Shijiazhuang Petrochemical has been under maintenance since end-August that will last till end-October.
** The Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) in northeastern China has shut a 2.25 million mt/year aromatics unit for maintenance following the maintenance at its residual hydrocracking unit, which has capped its daily crude throughputs.
** Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical’s has restarted its third CDU in Phase 2 project in early September but shut down again around mid September due to the cuts in energy consumption in the local region.
** Sinopec’s Gaoqiao Petrochemical will shut the entire refinery for maintenance from Oct. 10 till early-December.
** Sinopec’s Fujian Refining and Chemical Co. refinery in southeastern Fujian province will shut a 4 million mt/year CDU for maintenance from mid-October to mid-November.
** Sinopec’s Guangzhou Petrochemical will shut a 8 million mt/year CDU for maintenance between mid-October and the end of November.
Upgrades Existing entries
** 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 flagship refinery Zhenhai Refining & Chemical will start construction work in October at its phase 2 expansion project, adding another 11 million mt/year of refining capacity as well as 1.5 million mt/year of ethylene plant. Once the project is completed, Zhenhai Petrochemical’s primary capacity will rise to 38 million mt/year, with 3.7 million mt/year of ethylene capacity. This follows the completion of the phase 1 expansion project, which was delivered on June 29 2021. Phase 1 project involved setting up a 4 million mt/year CDU and a 1.2 million mt/year ethylene unit, which started construction in April 2020. These new facilities will be integrated with the existing 23 million mt/year CDU as well as 1 million mt/year ethylene plant. In the longer term, the company has the ambition to grow itself into a refining capacity of 60 million mt/year and 7 million mt/year of ethylene by 2030.
** 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 to H1 2021.
** 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
New and revised entries
** China’s private refining complex Shenghong Petrochemical is likely to receive its first crude cargo in late October, according to trade sources Oct. 15. Shenghong is likely to take two ESPO cargoes, each of 100,000 mt. One of them is to arrive in late October and the other in November. The refinery has booked another cargo of crude from Saudi Aramco to arrive at Qingdao port in mid November, with grades and volumes not known yet. There is no update regarding the trial date at Shenghong. Market sources said they expect the trial run to start in H2 November, delayed from the original plan of Aug. 26. “All depends on the construction status at the project,” said a company source, who placed the trial date at the end of the year. The complex, construction for which started in December 2018, had some core facilities delivered June 30, including the CDU, sulfur recovery units, naphtha hydrocracker and its crude tanks.
Existing entries
** 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.
Source: Platts