IIR Top Chemical Processing, Refining News Today: March 26th 2020

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North America
Dow Chemical has postponed a 50-day maintenance turnaround originally scheduled for August 2020 at the 2.4 billion-pound-per-year ethylene unit in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada. The maintenance has been postponed until 2021 due to market instability caused by COVID-19. Current plans for a polyethylene maintenance turnaround are still on schedule; however, the timing is being evaluated and could also be delayed due to COVID-19.

Irving Oil has reduced rates by an estimated 20% at its 300,000-BBL/d Saint John, New Brunswick, refinery amid the COVID-19 virus. All non-essential personnel have been sent home at this time.

Phillips 66 today is expected to restart the 37,000-BBL/d Crude 10, after the unit was shut down for heater repairs on March 21 at its 145,000-BBL/d Borger, Texas, refinery. Once the unit has restarted, the plant will reduce rates by approximately 20% on Friday, March 27 in order to meet reduced product demand brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

International
Braskem has reduced production rates by 50% at both its Triunfo Plant and Duque de Caxias Plant in Brazil, and will be evaluating that rate as driving demand decreases due to COVID-19 pandemic concerns, affecting operations at six units and three units, respectively. A duration for these events have not been specified.

Persian Gulf Star Oil Company (PGSOC) has rescheduled a 30-day planned maintenance shutdown of the Condensate Block 1, which includes five major units, at its 360,000-BBL/d Bandar Abbas Refinery in Iran due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The turnaround, which was previously planned for April 1, is now expected to begin by June 1. Expectations are to complete repairs and restart the units by June 30. As of now, the refinery continues to operate at normal throughput.

JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation was forced to de-rate eight of its refineries in Japan by 9% due to poor margins affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The rate cut commenced on March 16, and expectations are to tentatively resume full throughput by April 30. Separately, the 235,000-BBL/d Kawasaki Refinery is running at 72%, as the 65,000-BBL/d Crude 3 unit is currently offline for a planned turnaround since March 16, while the 320,200-BBL/d Mizushima Refinery has been running at 71% capacity since March 1.

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