Japan ENEOS shut its sole crude distillation unit at the 120,000 b/d Marifu refinery in western Japan on June 22 after a fire, a company official said. The fire broke out around 8:55 pm local time June 20 from a 27,000 b/d continuous catalytic reformer, and the CCR and some desulfurization units were shut right after the fire. “We are shutting down all units [for safety reasons],” the company official said, adding that it was not immediately clear when the company would be able to restart those units. Japan’s ENEOS restarted the sole 141,000 b/d crude distillation unit at its Sakai refinery in western Japan on June 24 after completing scheduled maintenance, a spokesperson said June 28.
REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: China crude throughput jumps in Q1, slows in April
Chinese refiners’ crude throughput in the first quarter posted the strongest year-on-year growth since 2010, rising 17.8% to 14.17 million b/d as the country’s GDP grew 18.3% on the year from a low base given the COVID-19 outbreak during the same period of last year, data released April 16 by the National Bureau of Statistics showed.
On top of the strong GDP growth, the year-on-year increase was also due to the expansion in refining capacity since Q2 last year, including the startup of Sinopec’s 200,000 b/d Zhanjiang Petrochemical and the trial run of Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical’s phase 2 project involving its 200,000 b/d CDU.
Japan Japan s ENEOS said April 16 it has restarted its Sendai refinery in northeast Japan, which had been suspended since the strong earthquake offshore Fukushima on Feb. 13. ENEOS initially planned to restart the Sendai refinery in the first half of April. However, another earthquake of magnitude 6.9 occurred off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture, northeast Japan, on March 20. Then ENEOS delayed the restart schedule to mid-April. Japan s largest refiner ENEOS has restarted the sole 129,000 b/d crude distillation unit at the Chiba refinery in Tokyo Bay after completing scheduled maintenance on April 22, a spokesman said April 23. Japan s ENEOS said April 20 it shut the 170,000 b/d No. 2 crude distillation unit at its 247,000 b/d Kawasaki refinery in Tokyo bay on April 10 for unplanned repair work on a valve, and expected to restart at the end of April.
REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: Maintenance accelerates in China
A number of refineries in China are starting or planning to carry out works in the second quarter.
China independent refiners’ appetite for crude and bitumen blend saw modest monthly growth in March following the easing of congestion at Shandong port, and inflows are expected to maintain similar momentum in the coming months as more refineries go offline for maintenance. In April, a combined 10.5 million mt/year of refining capacity will be shut at four Shandong facilities, bringing total offline capacity to 12.8 million mt/year. This trend is expected to continue in May-June, sources said. But there was still uncertainty over shutdown schedules as refineries have been very flexible with their maintenance plans. The 2.2 million mt/year Kelida Petrochemical, for example, has postponed its maintenance plan sometime from April to March.
REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: China’s Zhejiang to raise capacity by 2025; Japan’s runs down on earthquake
China’s Zhejiang province in the eastern coast aims to have 90 million mt/year refining capacity by 2025 from 51 million mt/year in 2019, suggesting that Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical’s phase 3 project is unlikely to launch within the 14th Five Year Plan 2021-25, market sources and analysts told S&P Global Platts.
The province’s energy regulator Zhejiang Development and Reform Commission published a draft plan for public comment, which include plans to expand refining capacity, speed up construction of oil pipelines and additional storage capacity for energy security, as well as significantly boost fuel bunkering volume at its pilot free trade zone.