Released April 08, 2020 | SUGAR LAND
en
North America
Enterprise Product Partners experienced an unplanned shutdown at its 1.65 million-pound-per-year propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit in Mont Belvieu, Texas. The unit was forced to shut down on April 1 due to turbine issues, but was restarted over the weekend of April 3.
Motiva today, April 8, restarted the 80,000-BBL/d Crude VPS 2 unit at its 600,000-BBL/d Port Arthur, Texas, refinery, after the unit was shut down for unknown issues on April 5.
Shell on April 6, shut down the 25,000-BBL/d Delayed Coker and 170,000-BBL/d Crude 4 unit at its 240,000-BBL/d Norco, Louisiana, refinery due to mechanical issues. Additionally, the refinery remains reduced production rates by 20% and will be evaluating that rate as auto fuel demand decreases due to COVID-19 pandemic concerns, affecting operations. A duration for this event has not been specified.
International
Formosa Petrochemical Corporation (FPCC) continues to carry out planned unit turnarounds at its 540,000-BBL/d Mailiao Refinery in Taiwan. The RFCC 2 unit began a 50-day turnaround on March 2, and the 180,000-BBL/d CDU 2 and 80,000-BBL/d ARDS 2 unit 40-day turnarounds commenced on March 11. The three units are expected to restart by April 20. Separately, RFCC runs were curtailed by 20% starting January 3 due to poor margins. Formosa is closely monitoring gasoline margins and will keep the option open to reduce operational runs, if necessary after the turnaround.
MRPL on March 30, resumed full throughput of the 60,000-BBL/d CDU 3 unit at its 300,000-BBL/d Mangalore Refinery in India. The unit was derated by 23% beginning March 18 due to low demand as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and other units of Phase 3 remain derated.
Additionally, the 144,000-BBL/d Phase 2, which was derated by 48% beginning March 23, is now derated 20%, which began March 30, except for the 144,000-BBL/d CDU 2 unit, which was derated by 16% that same date. As of now, the 96,000-BBL/d Phase 1 remains under shutdown, which began March 25. All units are expected to resume normal operations by April 14.
SINOPEC Beijing Yanshan Petrochemical Company has accelerated refinery-wide maintenance on its 260,000-BBL/d Beijing Refinery in China, which includes 13 major units and other support downstream units, from May 9 to April 8, due to poor margins caused by COVID-19. Expectations are to complete maintenance work and restart all units on May 22.
For more insight contact iirteam@iirenergy.com
www.iirenergy.com
