Tupras-Turkiye Petrol Rafinerileri AS (Tupras) has temporarily halted operations at its 11.9 million-tonnes/year Aliaga refinery in Turkey’s western province of Izmir as a result of reduced demand for petroleum products amid the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
Refining operations at Izmir—which accounts for about 40% of the operator’s overall crude oil processing capacity—began gradually slowing on May 5 and will remain offline until a currently proposed restart date of July 1, or whenever improved economic activity increases demand for petroleum products, Tupras said in a filing to Borsa İstanbul AS.
The operator said it does not expect the production cut at Izmir to result in termination of any employees, nor does it expect any further impacts to sales.
Tupras said it will update investors of any important developments regarding the suspension of Izmir refinery should they arise.
The announcement follows an Apr. 20 filing to Borsa Istanbul in which Tupras revised its 2020 outlook guidance for capacity utilization to 80-85% from a previous 95-100%, as well as proposed refining investments down to $125 million from its earlier $200 million estimate, based on the operator’s expectations that COVID-19 impacts would begin decreasing product demand by June, with normal economic activity not to begin recovery until August.
In the Apr. 20 filing, the operator also slashed its previous 2020 outlook for refinery sales to 25 million tonnes from its previous guidance of 29 million tonnes.
Izmir maintenance
In a May 2020 presentation to investors, Tupras said it was planning a series of scheduled maintenance projects at the Izmir refinery during this year’s fourth quarter, including 6 weeks of work at its U-4000 FCC unit, 7 weeks of work at the U-9200 continuous catalytic reforming (CCR) unit, 8 weeks of work at the U-9600 isomerization unit, and 7 weeks of work at the U-9900 diesel desulfurization unit.
The planned fourth-quarter 2020 scheduled maintenance projects at Izmir follow the operator’s first-quarter 2020 completion of 6 weeks of maintenance—which began in fourth-quarter 2019—at the refinery’s U-100 crude unit, as well as a 3-week maintenance project at the U-9600 CCR.
Tupras also confirmed in the May 2020 that it was continuing to carry out a series of ongoing investments throughout its refining system, including revamp of crude units, FCC modernization work, addition of new sulfur units, optimization of conversion units, and energy saving projects. The operator, however, disclosed no further details regarding the specific projects or the sites at which they were under way (OGJ Online, Oct. 13, 2017).
In addition to the Izmir refinery, Tupras also operates the 11.3 million-tpy Izmit refinery in Turkey’s northwestern province of Kocaeli, 5.4 million-tpy Kirikkale refinery in central Turkey, and 1.4 million-tpy Batman refinery in southeastern Turkey.
