Displaying 10/11
View Article as Single page
Roberts & Schaefer will install, start up, and test the pet coke system and provide on site construction management and technical support for commissioning and testing. It handled engineering and procurement.
Motiva, a 50-50 venture of Shell Oil Co. and Saudi Refining Inc., reported on May 16 that it had completed placement of the expansion project's 375-ft tall delayed coker, which has capacity of 95,000 b/d.
In October, the National Cooperative Refinery Association announced plans to build a new delayed-coking unit at its 85,000-b/d McPherson, Kan., refinery. The $555 million project will replace the existing coker, installed in 1952.
Jim Loving, NCRA president, said the new coker will allow the refinery to run a "greater variety of crude oils…. [this project] is the largest in NCRA's history with a targeted completion in August 2015."
The new delayed-coking unit is not expected to increase production. Its purpose, said the company announcement, is to "squeeze more liquid products (gasoline and diesel) out of the heaviest portion of the crude oil barrel."
Elsewhere in the Americas, early this year, Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) signed a contract to build a diesel hydrotreater and hydrogen generation unit at its Alberto Pasqualini refinery (Refap) in Canoas, state of Rio Grande do Sul (OGJ Online, Jan. 13, 2011).
The HDT II unit, said the company, will be able to treat 6,000 cu m/day of low-sulfur (10 ppm) diesel, thereby contributing to compliance with environmental legislation and improving air quality. The UGH II unit will be able to produce 1.25 million cu m/day of hydrogen at 99% purity. The refinery's capacity at the time of the announcement was 200,000 b/d.
In Colombia, Ecopetrol SA moved into the second phase of a major upgrade and expansion of its 250,000-b/sd Barrancabermeja refinery in Colombia. The project will raise refining capacity to 300,000 b/sd. It includes a new crude unit, delayed coker, hydrocracker, coker naphtha hydrotreater, and hydrogen and other units. Ecopetrol started up a hydrotreatment complex at the refinery last year (OGJ, Oct. 25, 2010, Newsletter).
Europe
As in North America, much of the refining news for the year in Europe, mainly Western Europe, has been about ownership changes and plant closings.
In the UK in April, Valero Energy Corp. agreed to buy Chevron Corp.'s 220,000-b/d refinery at Pembroke, Wales, for $730 million plus a payment for working capital estimated at $1 billion.
In addition to the refinery, the deal includes ownership interests in four product pipelines and 11 fuel terminals, a 14,000-b/d aviation fuels business, and more than 1,000 Texaco-branded wholesale sites in the UK and Ireland.
The Pembroke refinery yields 44% gasoline, 40% distillates, 11% fuel oil, and 5% other products, Valero said.
Catalytic hydrotreating capacities at Pembroke are 48,300 b/d for cat reformer feed, 60,000 b/d for diesel desulfurization, and 49,500 b/d for FCC naphtha. The refinery also has capacities of 32,500 b/d of HF alkylation, 19,900 b/d of butane isomerization, and 12,000 b/d of pentane-hexane isomerization (OGJ, Apr. 4, 2011, Newsletter).
Near the same time, Royal Dutch Shell PLC agreed to sell its 270,000-b/d Stanlow refinery in the UK to Essar (UK) Oil Ltd., a unit of India's Essar Energy PLC, for $1.3 billion (OGJ, Apr. 4, 2011, Newsletter). Essar offered to buy the refinery, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, in February (OGJ Online, Feb. 18, 2011).
Processing capacities at the refinery include 68,000 b/d of fluid catalytic cracking, 27,000 b/d of semiregenerative catalytic reforming, 30,000 b/d of continuous regenerative reforming, 11,000 b/d of HF alkylation, and 5,700 b/d of C4 isomerization.
Displaying 10/11
View Article as Single page
