Shell’s Rheinland refinery considers upgrading project

Management of Royal Dutch Shell PLC subsidiary Shell Deutschland Oil GMBH is evaluating the potential expansion of residual processing capacity at the 140,000-b/d refinery at Wesseling, Germany, which together with the former Godorf refinery near Cologne-Godorf, form its 325,000-b/d integrated Rheinland refinery, Germany’s largest.

In early August, refinery management began holding initial talks with representatives from local government and environmental associations to present preliminary plans for a potential investment project that would expand capacity of Wesseling’s residue processing plant as part of a series of measures aimed enabling production of fuels that will conform to the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) more stringent maximum-permitted sulfur levels for marine fuels taking effect on Jan. 1, 2020, Shell Deutschland said.

Still early in the process, the operator does not plan to formally submit the project for approval or release further details regarding the proposed expansion until it has received adequate feedback from government and environmental stakeholders in the region, said Jorg Dehmel, head of technology at the Rheinland refinery.

Shell Deutschland, which confirmed plans to continue talks with interested parties about the modernization project, did not disclose a definitive timeframe for when it might make a decision regarding the possible expansion.

The investment at Wesseling follows an October 2016 vote by the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee to implement a 0.5% global sulfur cap on marine fuel starting in 2020 (OGJ Online, Oct. 28, 2016).

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].