P. 11 ~ Continued - Global capacity growth reverses; Asian, Mideast refineries progress

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Essar completed its purchase in mid-year (OGJ, Aug. 8 2011, Newsletter), reporting nameplate capacity of the refinery at 296,000 b/d. It paid $175 million, less adjustments for costs, on completion of the deal and will pay a similar amount plus interest in 1 year. It also paid Shell $916 million for inventories.

Essar described the purchase as a way to gain direct access to the UK products market and expand options for exports of fuels from its 300,000-b/d Vadinar refinery in Gujarat on India's west coast. Expansion projects will boost Vadinar capacity to 375,000 b/d by yearend and to 405,000 b/d by September 2012.

Essar Energy also owns 50% of the 80,000-b/d Kenya Petroleum Refineries Ltd. refinery in Mombasa.

In Germany in August, private Dutch company Hestya Energy BV, Amsterdam agreed to buy the 260,000-b/d Wilhelmshaven refinery on Germany's North Sea coast from ConocoPhillips for an undisclosed amount.

Hestya lists its shareholders as Riverstone Holdings LLC, a private equity firm, and AtlasInvest, a private investment company. The deal includes tank farm and marine terminal.

In Switzerland this autumn, Petroplus Holdings AG, Zug, began to shut down its 60,000-b/d Cressier refinery in Neuchatel. The company attributed the action to the labor strike at the port of Fos Sur Mer, France, which it said was disrupting the supply of crude to the Cressier refinery.

Restart of the refinery was to depend on the outcome of the strike; Petroplus said it was taking steps to continue to supply oil products to its customers.

Petroplus, which operates six refineries in Europe with combined throughput capacity of 752,000 b/d, also said it was closing its 84,800-b/d refinery at Reichstett, France (OGJ Online, Oct. 21, 2010). The company's other refineries are in the UK, Belgium, Germany, and France.

In Eastern Europe earlier this year, Burgasnefteproekt EOOD, OAO Lukoil's engineering subsidiary, let a €70-million contract to Technip for the first phase of a heavy residue hydrocracking complex to be built at the 115,240-b/cd refinery in Burgas, Bulgaria, along the Black Sea. Burgas is Bulgaria's only refinery.

The contract covers detailed engineering and procurement for a 2.5-million-tpy residue hydrocracker based on Axens H-Oil process, as well as amine, sour water stripper, and hydrogen production units.

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