IIR Top Natural Gas, Refining News Today: October 28th 2020

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North America
Freeport LNG shut down Train 1 on October 21 at its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production plant in Quintana, Texas, due to a trip on a low-pressure mixed-refrigerant compressor that caused a fire. A restart date has not been disclosed at this time.

CITGO Petroleum, today, October 28, shut down the 13,000-BBL/d FCCU 1 located on the East side of its 165,000-BBL/d Corpus Christi, Texas, refining complex. The shutdown may last for an extended period due to economics.

Silver Eagle Refining restarted its 3,600-BBL/d Evanston, Wyoming, refinery on October 27 after shutting it down following a fire at its loading station on September 19. At this time, the refinery will operate with a 20% reduced production rate due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

International
PDVSA was forced to shut down all processing units on October 22 at its 625,000-BBL/d Amuay, Venezuela, refinery due to utility issues. Meanwhile, on October 27, an explosion occurred on the vacuum tower of the 120,000-BBL/d Crude Distillation 4; inspections are currently being performed, and a restart date has not been disclosed at this time.

Although the 85,000-BBL/d Crude and associated units are ready for restart, there is a lack of steam due to a water shortage. The 120,000-BBL/d Crude 2 continues offline due to financial constraints and COVID-19, while the 120,000-BBL/d Crude 3, offline since late December 2017, will be kept under repairs until early 2021. The 180,000-BBL/d Crude 5 remains offline, while planned repairs on the offline 80,000-BBL/d FCCU are complete.

ENEOS Corporation restarted the 150,000-BBL/d Crude 4 (CDU 4), 40,000-BBL/d Vacuum 4 and 28,000-BBL/d Naphtha Hydrotreater 2, and associated units, on October 28 at its 270,000-BBL/d Negishi Refinery in Japan. The 36,000-BBL/d RDS was restarted on October 27. Meanwhile, the 42,000-BBL/d FCC 2 is scheduled to restart on November 2; the 120,000-BBL/d Crude 1 (CDU 1) on November 5; and the 20,000-BBL/d Platformer 2 on November 17.

PCK Raffinerie GmbH performs a planned maintenance turnaround of the 17,000-BBL/d High-Conversion Soaker Cracking 1 and the 5,200-BBL/d HDS (Jet Fuel) Hydrotreater at its 220,500-BBL/d Schwedt Refinery in Germany. The turnaround kicked off in mid-October, and completion is expected in early November.

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