Petroleos del Norte SA (Petronor) has started planned maintenance on the largest of two crude distillation units at its 240,000-b/d refinery at Muskiz near Bilbao, Spain. The more-than 140,000-b/d Refining Unit 1 was taken offline on May 27 for a scheduled turnaround that will run through the first half of July, Petronor said.
Delek US Holdings Inc. will invest $150 million in a series of projects over the next 5 years to improve operations at its 74,000-b/sd refinery in Krotz Springs, La. The proposed enhancement projects at the refinery will include infrastructure improvements, plant construction and renovations, and installation of new machinery and equipment, the Louisiana Economic Development said.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC subsidiary Shell Chemical LP is advancing feasibility studies for a potential $1.2-billion manufacturing expansion of monoethylene glycol (MEG) production at its 841-acre Geismar chemicals complex in Ascension Parish, La.
North West Redwater Partnership (NWRP) has delayed introduction of bitumen feed from Alberta’s oil sands at the first 80,000-b/d phase of its proposed three-phased greenfield bitumen refinery in Sturgeon County, about 45 km northeast of Edmonton, Alta.
Crude oil-to-chemicals (COTC), a new chemical process technology, could more than double the profitability derived from a barrel of crude oil, according to IHS Markit. Based on its analysis, global, integrated refining and petrochemical companies currently earn about $8.50/bbl of refined crude oil. By leveraging the COTC process technology in a world-scale refining and chemical facility, owners could increase their plant net margins to $17/bbl.
ExxonMobil has let a contract to a consortium of Maire Tecnimont subsidiary Tecnimont SPA and Performance Contractors Inc. to provide front-end engineering design, early execution studies, and early procurement activities for new process units and associated offsites and utilities at the operator’s recently approved $2-billion project to expand its Baytown, Tex., chemical plant.
Meridian Energy Group Inc. has let a contract to Emerson Electric Co., St. Louis, to provide automation control systems and technologies for the operator’s grassroots 49,500-b/sd high-conversion Davis refinery to be built in Billings County in the heart of southwestern North Dakota’s Bakken shale region.
Brooge Petroleum & Gas Investment Co. is building a 250,000-b/d refinery designed to produce bunker fuel in Fujairah, UAE. The refinery will be the first of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa to comply with new regulations of the International Maritime Organization 2020 by capping sulfur content in shipping fuels, BPGIC said.
Chennai Petroleum Corp., a partly owned subsidiary of Indian Oil Corp., has let a contract to McDermott International to provide technology licensing for a polypropylene plant at CPCL’s proposed grassroots Cauvery Basin refinery at Nagapattinam in Tamilnadu, India.
Petroleos Mexicanos has decided it will build Mexico’s previously proposed 340,000-b/d refinery in the Port of Dos Bocas, Tabasco, on its own. The refinery, which comes as one of the main projects to help achieve Mexico’s energy independence and ensure national security, will cost about 160 billion pesos and will create 100,000 jobs, Pemex said.
OMV and Borealis are exploring ways to chemically recycle plastic waste into plastics feedstock at the refining and petrochemical site they share at Schwechat, Austria.
HPCL Rajasthan Refinery, a 74-26% joint venture of Hindustan Petroleum and the state government of Rajasthan, has let a contract to Chevron Lummus Global—a partnership of Chevron USA and McDermott International—to provide process technology for a coking unit at the JV’s planned 181,000-b/d integrated refinery and petrochemical complex now under construction at Pachpadra Tehsil, Barmer District, Rajasthan.
Dutch refiner Zeeland Refinery, a joint venture of Total and Lukoil, has let a contract to Aspen Technology to implement asset optimization software designed to bridge gaps in planning and scheduling at its 72,300-b/d refinery at Vlissingen, the Netherlands.
ExxonMobil Corp. is planning a $2-billion investment to expand its Baytown, Tex., chemical plant. Scheduled for startup in 2022, the expansion will include a performance polymer unit that will produce about 400,000 tonnes/year of Vistamaxx polymers, ExxonMobil said.
