Fire extinguished at Chevron refinery near San Francisco, forces unit closures

(hydrocarbonprocessing) -- A fire broke out late Monday in a crude distillation unit (CDU) at Chevron’s 245,000 bpd Richmond refinery near San Francisco, California, likely forcing the closure of much of the facility.

In a Tuesday morning statement, Chevron said the main fire - which began at 6:15 p.m. local time on Monday - had been extinguished.

The fire caused the refinery to emit large clouds of sulfuric acid and nitrogen dioxide, Chevron said in a regulatory filing.

Chevron officials confirmed the shutting of the No. 4 CDU, where the fire broke out, but declined to discuss operations in other parts of the refinery.

However, traders say the whole refinery is likely to be shut, as is normal practice in such incidents, according to media reports including Dow Jones Newswires. Paul Sankey, an analyst with Deutsche Bank, wrote that the refinery is likely to be out for several months.

The Richmond refinery is the largest refinery in the San Francisco area and accounts for nearly 10% of refining capacity on the US West Coast.

That could pressure gasoline margins higher in coming weeks, especially on the West Coast, according to industry analysts. It could also benefit other US refiners who may be needed to fill Chevron’s market share.

If the closure persists for a longer time, it could also impact global markets. The refinery runs primarily California crude, a variety of grades from Saudi Arabia as well as Iraqi Basra Light, according to reports.
MRC

(sibur) -- SIBUR Petrochemical India, a subsidiary of SIBUR, has started operations in Mumbai.

SIBUR Petrochemical India extends SIBUR’s geographic reach into India and South Asia. The subsidiary company will initially conduct detailed research of the petrochemical products market and support business development in a number of ways, including government relations.

The primary focus of SIBUR Petrochemical India is the construction of a butyl rubber facility in Jamnagar. The plant, which will operate at a capacity of 100,000 tonnes per year, is being built as a joint venture with Reliance Industries, a major Indian private sector company. The new subsidiary will work alongside Indian partners, as well as provide support to SIBUR employees coming to India to carry out installation and start-up work at the new plant.

Evgeny Griva has been appointed CEO of SIBUR Petrochemical India. Before taking his previous post of Advisor to Managing Director for Planning, Logistics and Sales Support, Mr Griva was Advisor to Managing Director of the Synthetic Rubbers Business Unit of SIBUR.

In February 2012, Reliance Industries, India’s largest private firm, and SIBUR, the leading petrochemical company in Russia, announced an agreement to establish a joint venture in the city of Jamnagar (India) to produce butyl rubber. The start-up capacity of Reliance Sibur Elastomers Private Limited will be 100,000 tonnes of butyl rubber per year. Today, India is the fastest growing market for synthetic rubber globally.

The country imports up to 75,000 tonnes synthetic rubber per year. SIBUR will own 25.1% of the JV, with Reliance Industries 74.9%. Along with the agreement to establish the joint venture, the parties signed a licence agreement facilitating use of SIBUR’s proprietary butyl rubber production technology at the new plant. This is the first joint project where SIBUR is involved as technology licenser.
MRC

(Plastemart) -- Reliance is going to stop PVC production at its three facilities located in Dahej, Vadodara and Hazira with a total production capacity of 625,000 tpa in September for a 15 days' maintenance turnaround.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is an Indian conglomerate company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The company's activities span exploration and production of oil and gas, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals (polyester, fibre intermediates, plastics and chemicals), textiles, retail, infotel and special economic zones.
MRC

(Plastemart) -- Finolex Industries (based in India) plans to resume production at its PVC unit in Ratnagiri (with capacity of 130,000 tpa) in September. The facility was shut down in early June due to VCM shortage .

Finolex Industries Limited (FIL), formerly Finolex Pipes Ltd., was incorporated in 1981 and has been in the plastics business since then. Beginning as a modest rigid PVC pipe manufacturer, FIL went on for backward integration and now manufactures PVC resin too. FIL is the largest PVC pipe manufacturer in India. Production capacity of the Pipes division is over 90,000 metric tonnes per annum spread over its two ultra modern plants at Urse (near Pune) and Ratnagiri.
MRC

(Plastemart) -- Keyuan Petrochemicals announced today that it has completed the trial production and comprehensive tests of its second production line for styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) and has now started commercial production.

Keyuan completed construction of the new 70,000 tons SBS production facility in September 2011. After several months' of trial production that included various technique tests, the Company started commercial production with the first production line in January 2012. As of June 30, 2012, this production line had produced 13,049 metric tons of SBS. As a result of the trial production, testing and the operational experience gained from the first line, management believes that second production line will be better adjusted and optimized for commercial production.

Keyuan Petrochemicals, Inc., is a leading independent manufacturer and supplier of various petrochemical products. The company is located in Qingshi Industrial Park, Ningbo, China. It has annual petrochemical manufacturing design capacity of 720,000 metric tons for a variety of petrochemical products, including BTX aromatics, propylene, styrene, MTBE and other chemicals.
MRC