Thai refiner schedules maintenance shutdown

Bangchak Corp. Public Co. Ltd. (BCPCL), formerly Bangchak Petroleum Public Co. Ltd., has scheduled two units for 22 days of planned maintenance beginning later this month at its 114,000-b/d refinery in Bangkok, Thailand.

BCPCL will temporarily shut down the refinery’s hydrogen plant and hydrocracking unit on May 19 for maintenance related to the company’s broader refining plan, safety measures, and new products structure, BCPCL said.

The refinery’s other units will maintain normal operations throughout the maintenance closure, which is scheduled to conclude on June 9.

With preparations made ahead of the planned shutdown to secure necessary product requirements to meet demand, BCPCL said it does not expect any major impacts to customer supplies or the company’s annual performance.

This year’s temporary maintenance shutdown presumably comes as part of BCPCL’s previously announced efficiency, energy, and environment (3E) project, which involves a total planned investment of 90 billion baht ($3 billion) through 2020 in projects designed grow and expand the company’s upstream and downstream businesses (OGJ Online, Mar. 2, 2015).

Of the 20 billion baht ($600 million) dedicated to 3E investments in its downstream operations, BCPCL already has undertaken a series of projects at the Bangkok refinery aimed at improving overall efficiency and reliability to enable the plant to reach and maintain its nameplate crude processing capacity of 120,000 b/d (OGJ Online, Feb. 16, 2016).

BCPCL formally approved to change the company name at its 2017 annual meeting of shareholders held on Apr. 5, with the change taking effect just 2 days later, the company said in an Apr. 7 release.

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].