New and revised entries Spain s Petronor said March 29 it is restarting the fluid catalytic cracker at the refinery after it concluded a maintenance ahead of schedule. The unit was halted March 26 and seven days of work announced. The unit was previously halted in April 2020 for an undisclosed length of time. Bilbao halted its number 2 crude distilation on Nov. 20, 2020 in reaction to weaker market conditions. The halt has affected 40% of the refinery s crude distilation and includes the visbreaking unit. The company also took a boiler offline in plant 3 on March 28, without specifying the length of the work. Plant 3 is where most of the conversion units are located. The boiler has previously been taken offline between March 15-24. Spain s Petronor said March 18 that it is restarting its G4 diesel desulfurization unit and its H4 hydrogen unit that were halted Feb. 13, alongside the sulfur recovery plant (SR5), for routine maintenance.
REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: Poor conditions in Europe amid expected improvement
European refineries have been looking to increase runs as they see better prospects for 2021, but conditions remain poor for the moment.
Spain’s Repsol has halted the crude distillation unit at Puertollano due to unfavorable market conditions. In a presentation March 26 the company said its refining margin indicator has fallen to around $0.50/barrel during January and February this year, from an average of $2.20/b in the full year 2020 and $5.00/b in the full year 2019.
ExxonMobil’s French downstream subsidiary Esso SAF said that globally refining margins fell to their lowest in 20 years. In France, refining margins were down to Eur2/mt between May and December 2020, against an average of Eur26/mt between 2011-2020. Margins improved in January and February this year but deteriorated again in March. Esso SAF said that its two refineries Port Jerome-Gravenchon and Fos-sur-Mer reduced throughput and ut
REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: European companies report lower 2020 runs, margins
European companies have been reporting lower throughput and margins for 2020 as a result of the pandemic.
Spain-based integrated energy group Cepsa’s refinery throughput decreased 10% in 2020 at 19.3 million mt (387,000 b/d), or a 78% utilization rate, the company said. This contraction was accompanied by a 42% narrowing of the refining margin to $2.50/b, although this full-year average was much better than a decade-long low in the third quarter 2020 of 50 cents/b. Sales volume of refined products was resilient, dropping just 4% in the full year at 14.8 million mt, partly buoyed by chemical and asphalt sales.
REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: Companies report lower throughput in Europe
Oil companies in Europe have reported lower throughput in the fourth quarter and 2020 as a whole, with many refineries continuing with run cuts in the first quarter of 2021. All units at Total’s Grandpuits refinery in central France are now fully offline as a result of a strike called by staff to protest against job losses resulting from the conversion of the refinery into a biorefinery, a union source said. Total halted the crude distillation unit at Grandpuits Nov. 16 but the other units at the site had remained in operation. All units are now halted and product deliveries have also stopped, while work to prepare the conversion of the refinery has also been halted. Strikes started in October at the site.
REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: Some maintenance ends in Europe, TAL shipments resume
Some maintenance has finished in Europe with refineries restarting but temporary closures remain in force at a number of plants, both full and partial.
The International Energy Agency expects improved oil products demand next year to result in 500,000 b/d higher throughput at European refiners after a 1.5 million b/d decline in 2020, with runs expected to remain below Q3 2020 levels until Q3 2021.
Separately, the Trans-Alpine pipeline (TAL), which ships crude oil from the Italian port of Trieste to refineries in Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic, resumed operations the morning of Dec. 11 after problems due to heavy snow in the Alps through which it runs, according to sources. The pipeline had stopped shipping crude as power supply to a pumping station in Austria was cut, Germany’s Bild newspaper reported. Miro, whose refinery in Karlsruhe is one of those that receives crude via TAL, said that foll