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PROCESSING — Quick Takes
Petroplus to shut down refineries in January
Petroplus Holdings AG reported Dec. 30 it will start the temporary shutdown of three of its refineries in Europe next month after lenders froze a $1 billion credit facility.
The Zug, Switzerland-based independent refiner said it will start temporary economic shutdowns in January of its refineries in Petit Couronne, France, 161,800 b/d; Antwerp, Belgium, 107,500 b/d; and Cressier, Switzerland, 68,000 b/d, "given limited credit availability and the economic climate in Europe."
Restart of the facilities, the company said, is "dependent on economic conditions and credit availability."
Petroplus Holdings is the largest independent refiner and wholesaler of petroleum products in Europe. In addition to the three affected refineries, the company also owns and operates a 220,000-b/d refinery in Coryton, UK, and a 110,000-b/d refinery in Ingolstadt, Germany.
All five refineries have a combined throughput capacity of 667,300 b/d.
More processing, treating planned in West Texas
Nuevo Midstream LLC plans to increase processing and treating capacity at its Ramsey plant in the Delaware basin near Orla, Tex.
Nuevo of Houston bought a cryogenic processing plant with capacity of 100 MMcfd and a second amine treating plant with a capacity of 475 gpm, both to be installed and operational in second-quarter 2012, the company said.
Plans call for Nuevo to extend its Ramsey gathering system with additional large-diameter gas gathering lines and an interconnect to El Paso's natural gas pipeline. The Ramsey system crosses through Eddy County in southeast New Mexico and Culberson, Loving, and Reeves counties in West Texas. It currently serves 38 gas producers in the liquids-rich Bone Springs, Wolfcamp, and Avalon shale plays.
This is Nuevo Midstream's second major expansion in the Delaware Basin, it said, since it launched in April 2011. Phase 2 expansion is supported by additional customer dedications of acreage and production in the Avalon shale trend.
When the expansion is complete, Nuevo Midstream will have 110 MMcfd of processing capacity and 625 gpm of treating capacity at Ramsey along with more than 180 miles of high and low-pressure pipeline and residue connections to interstate and intrastate markets.
Nuevo recently completed its Phase 1 expansion, which included recommissioning a 10-MMcfd refrigerated Joule-Thomson processing plant and fractionator and installing 150 gpm of amine treating at the Ramsey plant, as well as adding 13 miles of 8-in. pipeline to the Ramsey gathering system with an interconnect to the Enterprise Products pipeline 9 miles south of the Ramsey plant.
Jay Lendrum, Nuevo Midstream's president and CEO, said "Based on the level of current and planned drilling activity in the area, it is very conceivable that by the time our Phase 2 expansion is operational, we will be in the advanced planning stages of a Phase 3 expansion.
HollyFrontier to expand refinery in Utah
HollyFrontier Corp. will expand crude capacity at its 31,000-b/d refinery at Woods Cross, Utah, to 45,000 b/d with idle equipment from Western Refining Inc.'s facility at Bloomfield, NM.
HollyFrontier will move and revamp the crude, fluid catalytic cracking, and polymerization units from the Bloomfield refinery, operations of which were consolidated with Western's 23,000 b/d Gallup, NM, refinery, about 95 miles away, in 2010 (OGJ Online, Nov. 10, 2009). Western acquired the New Mexico refineries from Giant Industries Inc. in 2006.
HollyFrontier has signed a definitive agreement to buy the Bloomfield units from Western. It also plans to expand the diesel hydrotreater at Woods Cross.
The company expects the expansion, estimated to cost $225 million, to be complete in late 2004.
It has signed a 10-year agreement with Newfield Exploration for the supply of 20,000 b/d of black and yellow wax crude oil from the Uinta basin, beginning when the refinery expansion is complete.
At that time, the refinery will be able to process about 24,000 b/d of waxy Utah crudes.
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