In Oil & Companies News 07/06/2018
Refinery maintenance in Middle East has been slowing down but news has continued to emerge of planned upgrades and new launches, according to S&P Global Platts estimates.
In Iran, all refineries are set to undergo work throughout the current Iranian year ending March 2019.
EXISTING ENTRIES
— Iran is set to stagger its refinery turnarounds in the current Iranian year to March 2019. Four of the country’s refineries — Arak, Tabriz, Isfahan and Abadan — were due to undergo maintenance in the spring. All of the country’s other refineries will also carry out turnarounds in the current Iranian year.
FUTURE WORK
— South Korea’s GS Engineering & Construction Co. has won a contract to repair units at the Ruwais refinery in the UAE damaged in a fire in January 2017. GS said it will restore fire-damaged parts of the oil processing plant at Ruwais by early 2019.
UPGRADES
NEW AND REVISED ENTRIES
— Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. awarded a contract to Samsung Engineering worth $3.1 billion for a major upgrade of its Ruwais refinery, which will allow it to process offshore crude, scheduled to be completed by the end of 2022. Separately, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. has asked international contractors for expressions of interest in a major new project to boost gasoline and aromatics production at the plant. The project will expand existing gasoline production units at Ruwais, boosting gasoline production to 9.4 million mt/year by 2022 from 5.2 million mt/year currently. This is along with the construction of a new complex to produce 1.56 million mt/year of paraxylene and benzene.
— Iran expects to continue upgrading its refineries, apart from Arak where the modernization has already been completed. Investments in those projects are expected to be approved in the next Iranian year, which starts in March 2019. The country has so far signed contracts for development of the Tehran and Bandar Abbas oil refineries with Japan’s JGC, Marubeni and Chiyoda-Dailim-Mitsui. An upgrading project is under way at Abadan in partnership with China’s Sinopec. Separately, there are memorandums of understanding with Daelim for an RFCC/RCD unit at the Isfahan refinery, and with South Korea’s SK and Italy’s Tecnimont for Tabriz. But Iran’s plans to attract international investment to upgrade its downstream sector was dealt a blow South Korean contractor Daelim Industrial pulled out of a Eur1.83 billion deal to build new facilities at the Isfahan (Esfahan) refinery, citing the return of US sanctions on the country. The US sanctions could also affect other South Korean projects in Iran. SK E&C signed a $1.6 billion deal in August last year to renovate and upgrade the gasoline and diesel manufacturing facilities in the Tabriz oil refinery complex, northwest of Tehran. “We are still waiting for final approval from the Iranian government for the project with uncertainties over renewed US sanctions,” a SK E&C official said Monday.
— Iraq has added another 10,000 b/d of refining capacity after completing the rehabilitation of a crude distillation unit 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.
EXISTING ENTRIES
— Jordan Petroleum Refinery Co. has awarded a contract to US engineer KBR for the design of a new residue hydro-processing unit as part of its expansion of the Zarqa refinery in Jordan.
— Bahrain Petroleum Co. has awarded a $4.2 billion contract for the expansion and modernization of the Sitra refinery, slated for completion in 2022 and taking total capacity to 360,000 b/d.
— Iraq has started work on a 70,000 b/d expansion of its Basra refinery, in the south of the country, raising its capacity to 280,000 b/d from 210,000 b/d, with the addition of a fourth crude unit. The oil ministry hopes to complete the new distillation unit by the end of 2018.
— Iraq’s North Refineries Co. is compiling a list of international equipment suppliers as the oil ministry prepares to rebuild the 140,000 b/d Salah al-Din refinery, part of the 350,000 b/d Baiji refining complex.
— US engineer CB&I has been awarded a $95 million contract for the expansion and modernization of the 305,000 b/d Saudi Aramco Shell Refinery (Sasref) in Jubail.
LAUNCHES
EXISTING ENTRIES
— Iraq opened a downstream tender hoping to attract engineering and construction companies to build a new refinery in Basra province.
— Iraq signed a contract with two Chinese companies for the country’s first new refinery to be built with foreign investors. The contract, with PowerChina and Norinco, covers construction and operation of a new 300,000 b/d export orientated refinery, along with an integrated petrochemicals complex near Iraq’s existing oil export facilities on the southern Al-Fao peninsula which leads to the Persian Gulf. The oil ministry is still 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. For the latter in February 2018 it signed a contract with Rania International. It has also added 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 and another in Qayarah, territory previously occupied by IS. It did not say if it will be a completely new construction or a building out of the existing Qayarah refinery, which has a 20,000 b/d nameplate capacity but has been operating at 4,000 b/d.
— Construction of the 140,000 b/d Karbala refinery, Iraq’s first new downstream facility in decades, has stalled due to a lack of finance. Work is also yet to start on the 150,000 b/d Missan refinery.
— Iraq is considering a 150,000 b/d greenfield refinery project at Nassiriya.
— Houston-based GTC Technology has agreed a deal to provide a gasoline production unit to Iraq’s Al-Barham Group, which plans to build a refining complex in the northern city of Kirkuk.
— Honeywell said Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Co. will use a range of its technologies for the refining and petrochemical complex at Al-Zour.
— Kuwait has committed itself to building a new 230,000 b/d refinery at Duqm with its Persian Gulf neighbor Oman, signing a final investment decision for the refinery project.
— Saudi Aramco aims to start up its greenfield 400,000 b/d Jizan refinery in the second half of 2018 as the project was nearly completed.
Source: Platts
