MOSCOW (MRC) -- BP Plc is expected to resume operation at its small gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) at its 430,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Whiting, Indiana, refinery in late October after about a month of the overhaul, reported Inspectioneeing with reference to the sources familiar with plant operations.
The company began a planned overhaul of the small FCCU on 19 September, said sources. BP was continuing to increase production levels on the large crude distillation unit (CDU) at the refinery on that day, but didl not run the 240,000 Pipestill 12 CDU at full capacity, while the 65,000 bpd FCCU 600 was shut for the overhaul, the sources said.
Thus, FCCU 600 is expected to be shut for about a month to complete the overhaul, according to the sources. Production was cut on Pipestill 12 the day before because of a malfunction. Pipestill 12 is the largest of three CDUs doing the primary breakdown of crude oil into hydrocarbon feedstocks for all other production units at the refinery.
As MRC informed previously, in November 2018, BP Plc’s trading arm entered a tolling agreement with the owners of an idled oil refinery in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, cementing plans to bring the plant back online six years after it was idled by previous owners. Under BP’s tolling agreement with Limetree Bay Refining LLC, owner of the idled Hovensa refinery, BP will supply the facility with crude and sell its products, low-sulfur fuels that will meet an International Maritime Organization mandate in 2020.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption was 1,081,100 tonnes in the first half of 2019, up by 8% year on year. Deliveries of all PE grades increased. Meanwhile, the estimated consumption of PP in the Russian market totalled 694,210 tonnes in January-June 2019, up by 14% year on year. The supply of propylene block copolymers (PP-block) and propylene homopolymers (PP-homo) increased.
BP is one of the world's leading international oil and gas companies, providing its customers with fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services and petrochemicals products for everyday items.
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