Petron to use UOP technologies to expand refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell has announced that Petron Corporation will expand and upgrade its Limay, Bataan refinery in the Philippines with technologies from Honeywell UOP, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

When the project is completed, the refinery will produce 75,000 barrels per day of refined fuels and 1 million tons per annum of aromatics, increasing its capacity by 55 percent, "Petron Corp. will expand and modernize its refinery in Limay, the Philippines to produce 75,000 bpd of refined fuels and 1 million tpa of aromatics."

"Petron Corp. will expand and modernize its refinery in Limay, the Philippines to produce 75,000 bpd of refined fuels and 1 million tpa of aromatics."

Honeywell UOP will provide the basic engineering design, licensing and services for a condensate fractionation unit, naphtha hydrotreater, and UOP CCR Platforming, Sulfolane, LPG and kerosene Merox and distillate Unionfining units. These technologies will enable Petron to meet growing domestic demand for motor fuels by upgrading 100,000 barrels per day of condensates and light crude oils to aromatics and automotive fuels.

"This is a major expansion of refining capacity in the Philippines, and it will help the country satisfy its growing demand for cleaner-burning gasoline and diesel with domestic production," said John Gugel, president of Honeywell UOP. "The expansion also adds a second aromatics train for Petron so it can better meet the growing demand for those products in the region."

With a population of 104 million people, the Philippines imported 46 percent of its gasoline, 59 percent of its diesel and 69 percent of its liquefied petroleum gas in 2017.

Honeywell UOP’s CCR Platforming process produces reformate for high-octane, low-sulfur gasoline and aromatics, and is a reliable, continuous source of high-purity hydrogen for the production of other fuel products. Its Sulfolane process recovers high purity benzene and toluene from reformate.

The Merox process treats the naphtha feedstock to meet product specifications, while distillate Unionfining is a hydrotreating process that removes contaminants from feed streams.

As MRC informed previously, in April 2012, Petron Corp. announced that its oil and gas affiliate completed the acquisition of the downstream oil unit of ExxonMobil in Malaysia.

Petron Corporation is the largest oil refining and marketing company in the Philippines, supplying nearly 40 percent of the country’s oil requirements. Petron operates an integrated crude oil refinery and petrochemicals complex with a rated capacity of 180,000 barrels per day in Limay, Bataan. Its refinery processes crude oil into a full range of petroleum products including gasoline, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), jet fuel, kerosene, industrial fuel oil, and petrochemical feedstock benzene, toluene, mixed xylene, and propylene.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Curacao’s Isla refinery is considering offers from 15 companies interested in temporarily operating the 335,000-barrel-per-day facility to replace the current operator, Venezuela’s ailing PDVSA state oil company, the refinery and the Curacao government said in a joint statement, as per Reuters.

Isla has been largely idled due to a lack of crude shipments to the plant as PDVSA struggles with a production crisis due to lack of investments, a brain drain, crime and decaying infrastructure.

The situation has worsened since ConocoPhillips in May obtained court orders and seized some PDVSA inventories, assets and cargoes in the Caribbean to satisfy a USD2 billion arbitration award over the 2007 nationalization of the U.S. producer’s projects in Venezuela.

The refinery sent letters in June to oil companies and traders offering operating partnerships both for the short term and under a long-term lease, according to a copy of one letter seen by Reuters.

A short-term operator will be chosen by September, with a Memorandum of Understanding signed the following month, the statement said. A long-term operator will be chosen by year-end and begin operating the refinery after PDVSA’s lease comes to an end in December 2019.

The government declined to provide details on the 15 companies. PDVSA did not respond to a request for comment, but the refinery said the Caracas-based company was open to allowing a new operator.

“PDVSA is important in the search for a third party and that is why we will soon continue the dialogue we recently began in Caracas,” the statement read.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, commonly known as Sinopec, said that it expects its net profit for the first half of 2018 to have jumped by around 50 percent on the year, on the back of higher oil prices, and according to Reuters calculations, the net incomes for both the first half and the second quarter this year would be the highest profit figures for the top Chinese refiner since 2013, as per Reuters.

Sinopec, due to report audited figures for the first half of 2018 in August, said in a security exchange filing today that the key reason for the jump in the profits it expects was the fact that "In the first half of 2018, with the international oil price increased as compared with the corresponding period of pervious year, the upstream business of the Company improved significantly."

"Meanwhile, the midstream and downstream business of the Company seized the market opportunity and strengthened structural adjustment and optimisation. The profitability of the Company has showed a year-on year improvement," Sinopec said, noting that the 50-percent expected jump in H1 profit was just a preliminary calculation and investors should look for the official figures when they are released in August.

Under the Chinese Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises (ASBE), Sinopec expects its net profit attributable to shareholders in H1 to have soared by some 50 percent compared to the USD3.988 billion (27.092 billion yuan) it posted for the first half of 2017.

According to Reuters calculations based on that assumption, this year’s first-half net profit of Sinopec would be USD5.984 billion (40.65 billion yuan), while the second-quarter net profit would stand at USD3.224 billion (21.9 billion yuan)—the highest quarterly net income since the third quarter of 2013.

In the first half of 2017, Sinopec’s profit attributable to owners of the company and prepared under the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), came in at USD4.109 billion (27.915 billion yuan), a 40.1-percent surge year-on-year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Repsol SA said Monday that it has agreed to buy 40% of Mexico's Bardahl, in an operation that will allow the Spanish oil major to produce and sell lubricants in the Latin American country, as per Morning Star.

Bardahl, which produces and distributes lubricants through its own network, has a 6% market share in Mexico, according to Repsol.

Repsol said the investment forms part of its plan to double the sales volume of its lubricants unit by 2021, and that it goes hand in hand with its broader expansion strategy in Mexico. The company plans to open between 200 and 250 service stations in the country a year through 2022. It currently operates 60.

Repsol said it expects to complete the operation, which is subject to regulatory approval, in the third quarter.

Financial details weren't disclosed.

As MRC informed previously, in Q1 2016, Repsol completed the construction work of its new metallocene polyethelene plant at its Tarragona site. Repsol started up the plant and began production and marketing of this new product during Q2 2016.

Repsol S.A is an integrated Spanish oil and gas company with operations in 28 countries. The bulk of its assets are located in Spain.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The joint venture Uz-Kor Gas Chemical, established by the National Holding Company Uzbekneftegaz and the investment consortium of Korean companies - Kogaz, Lotte Group and STX Energy, plans to take off-stream its production of polymers for a turnaround in October, according to ICIS-MRC Price report with reference to the plant's customers.

The plant's clients said Uz-Kor Gas Chemical intends to begin the scheduled maintenance at its high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) production capacities on 3 October. The outage will be long and should be completed by 27 October.

The company's customers also added that the shutdown for maintenance might be shifted to other dates.

As MRC reported earlier, Uz-Kor Gas Chemical was founded on the basis of Ustyurt Gas Chemical Comples (Surgil deposit). The total cost of the project is over USD4 billion. The complex provides processing of 4.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas and includes HDPE and PP production facilities with the annual capacity of 386,000 and 80,000 tonnes, respectively.
MRC