With the EU planning to ban Russia’s crude imports within six months, following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, European refiners will have to look for alternative supply, though many of them have already started diversifying their sources. Shell and Sweden’s Preem were among the first to cease all spot purchases of Russian oil and products. .
Permanent outages have defined the European refinery scene since last year, while Spanish refineries have been restarting after temporary shutdowns. Petroineos’ Grangemouth refinery in Scotland has seen its capacity reduced by 30% to around 150,000 b/d after the closures of a crude distillation unit, or CDU, and the fluid catalytic cracker, or FCC, earlier .
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Spain s largest refiner Repsol said it sees refining margins widening in the remainder of the year amid a pickup in activity after the country s state of alert ended May 9. The refining margin is seen averaging $2/b for the full year, rising from 20 cents/b in Q1 and around $1.20/b in April. The company said it made a premium of 60 cents/b over benchmark in Q1 but did not make a forecast for a premium going forward. Its Spanish refinery utilization rate was 76.3% in Q1, down from 82.4% in Q1 2020 but higher than a 73.7% rate in fourth-quarter 2020. The company has reacted by closing a portion of its capacity through 2020 and 2021, taking its Spanish conversion rate down to 81.6% in Q1 from 100.4% in Q1 2020. Repsol also changed some of its contracted positions from a CIF basis to an FOB basis, which has also depressed margins. But while three refineries have tempora
New and revised entries Germany s Mineraloelraffinerie Oberrhein (Miro) was restarting units after planned maintenance, it said April 7. The restart began on April 1. The refinery was expected to ramp up throughput in April as the turnaround was coming to an end. The plant carried out a planned turnaround, starting in mid-February and lasting six weeks until the end of March. It included an upgrade aimed at increasing the conversion capacity for maximizing the output of gasoline and diesel. The maintenance was the largest in the refinery s history, it said. Around two-thirds of the facilities were halted for major inspection, including 41 units in Plant 1 and three units in Plant 2. Last year, the refinery said it was planning a major maintenance in 2021. It said at the time it would invest Eur300 million ($333 million), with two-thirds in new projects and one-third for upgrading existing units during the turnaround.