IIR Energy BREAKERS for Wednesday, March 15, 2017

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REFINING
Fire, Explosion Shuts Down Syncrude Plant North of Fort McMurray, Alberta
An explosion and fire shut down Syncrude's Mildred Lake oil sands upgrader, which is north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, on Tuesday afternoon (news media accounts). One person was hospitalized in "serious but stable condition." Later in the day, Syncrude issued a statement that the fire had been "isolated and controlled." Police said they had not yet confirmed the cause of the explosion. Per plant personnel, the three Diluent Recovery units (DRU 1, 2 and 3), Fluid Cokers (8-1, 8-2 and 8-3) and Vacuum Plants 37-1 and 37-3 remain online. Damage assessment is under way, with early indications that the affected hydrotreater will remain offline until mid- to late April. IIR continues to monitor the situation. Syncrude Canada is one of the world's largest producers of synthetic crude oil from oil sands, and the largest single producer in Canada; the Mildred Lake facility is the largest single greenhouse gas emitter in Canada. (Plant: 1035638)

Pemex TRI Pushes Back Planned Maintenance at Miguel Hidalgo Refinery
Pemex TRI's 315,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) Refineria Miguel Hidalgo in Tula De Allende, is awaiting full approval for its 2017 refinery maintenance program amid budget restrictions. The current plan indicates work on the following units at the following times: April or May 2017, for 30 days (previously scheduled for March 2017): 7,600-BBL/d HF Alkylation, 25,000-BBL/d HDS Unit 700-2 (Diesel) and 25,000-BBL/d HDS Unit 800-1 (Diesel). April 2017, for 30 days: 21,350-BBL/d HDG (Gas Oil Hydrotreater) and 10,500-BBL/d Isomerization (Pentane). July 2017 (previously scheduled for May 2017): 30,000-BBL/d Reformer Unit 500-2 (32 days), 165,000-BBL/d Combinada Primaria 2 (Crude 2) (15 days) and 25,000-BBL/d HDS Unit 400-2 (Naphtha) (30 days). August 2017, for 25 days: 150,000-BBL/d Combinada Primaria 1 (Crude), 40,000-BBL/d FCCU 1, 25,000-BBL/d HDS Unit 400-1 (Naphtha), 30,000-BBL/d Reformer Unit 500-1 (CCR) and 36,500-BBL/d Unit 600-1 (LPG Splitter). The 2017 maintenance program is still under revision and Pemex HQ Office could expedite a final approval by late March. (Mexico) (Plant: 1021138)

North Atlantic Refinery in Newfoundland Suffers Disruption, Outage
North Atlantic Refining Limited, which is owned by SilverRange Financial Partners LLC, was able to restart all units at its 115,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) North Atlantic Refinery in Come By Chance, Newfoundland, on Tuesday after suffering a power outage earlier the same day. The outage is believed to have been caused by a disruption from an outside service provider. All units should be operating normally within the next 24 hours. The North Atlantic facility refines more than 130,000 barrels of oil per day and ships to key markets in the eastern U.S. and Europe. (Eastern Canada) (Plant: 2012082)

NATURAL GAS
Inpex's Ichthys LNG Project Stalled by Contractor Dispute
Inpex's $37 billion Ichthys Australian liquefied natural gas (LNG) project is mired in a subcontractor dispute, involving the termination of 640 workers in a consortium building LNG storage tanks (news media accounts). JKC Australia LNG, which is handling overall construction of the project, said on Wednesday that work had been stopped. But Inpex said it was still on schedule for a July-September start, and added that the tanks were 91% complete and the project remained on schedule to start shipping LNG to customers in the third quarter. The project is expected to make Australia the world's top exporter of LNG.

ONEOK Plans Turnaround at NGL Fractionator in Bushton, Kansas
ONEOK Field Services Company LLC is planning a 7-day turnaround at its 210,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) NGL Fractionator Complex in Bushton, Kansas, beginning the first week of April. ONEOK's natural gas liquids (NGL) business consists of 4,100 miles of gathering pipelines; interests in four fractionators, with total capacity of about 550,000 barrels per day; one isomerization unit, with a capacity of 9,000 barrels per day; and seven storage facilities with roughly 26.5 million barrels of capacity. (Plant: 1039695)

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