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MOSCOW (MRC) -- BP Australia plans to
shut its 146,000 b/d Kwinana refinery in Western Australia and convert it into a
fuel import terminal, reported S&P Global
with reference to the company's statment Oct. 30.
The continued
growth of large scale, export-oriented refineries throughout Asia and the Middle
East has structurally changed the Australian market, BP said, adding that
regional oversupply and sustained low refining
margins mean the Kwinana
refinery is no longer economically viable.
Converting the refinery into
an import terminal will help ensure ongoing security of fuel supply for Western
Australia, the company said.
Refining activities will wind down over the
next six months and conversion works will carry on out to 2022.
"BP is
committed to playing a leading role in growing Australia's future prosperity,
making significant investments in natural gas production, as well as in
convenience and mobility businesses," Australia Head of Country Frederic Baudry
said.
"We are particularly excited by the shared ambitions with Western
Australia to be net zero by 2050 and the opportunities this can offer," he
added.
This includes building on its position in the North West Shelf
joint venture through gas exploration at Ironbark and investing in retail
growth, as well as progressing low carbon projects with Lightsource BP. It is
also assessing the feasibility of a large scale hydrogen export plant in
Geraldton, Western Australia, in partnership with the federal
government.
In addition to investing in an import terminal at Kwinana, BP
is also exploring future options for the site, including a potential clean
energy hub to harness the existing and emerging technologies required for the
decarbonization of the Western Australian economy, it said, adding that a
multi-use clean energy hub could produce and store lower carbon fuels, including
sustainable aviation and marine fuels and waste-to-energy solutions such as
renewable diesel.
As MRC wrote
before, a “technical defect” disrupted production at part of the
Gelsenkirchen integrated refinery and petrochemicals complex in Germany, early
last week. The company operates plants in the Horst and Scholven districts at
Gelsenkirchen, with the defect occurring at Horst. BP sais it was
working to resume normal operations as soon as possible. It did not specify
which unit has been affected, with sources suggesting it was the fluid catalytic
cracker, but this was not confirmed by the company.
Ethylene and
propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and polypropylene
(PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report,
Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,594,510 tonnes in the first nine
months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high denstiy polyethylene (HDPE)
shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market
reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula:
production minus exports plus imports, exluding producers' inventories as of 1
January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
BP
plc (formerly The British Petroleum Company plc and BP Amoco plc) is a British
multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is
one of the world's seven oil and gas "supermajors", whose performance in 2012,
made it the world's sixth-largest oil and gas company, the sixth-largest energy
company by market capitalization and the company with the world's 12th-largest
revenue (turnover). It is a vertically integrated company operating in all areas
of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining,
distribution and marketing, power generation and trading. It also has renewable
energy interests in biofuels, wind power, smart grid and solar
technology. |
