IIR Top Refining News Today: July 29th 2020

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North America
Marathon Petroleum on July 26 restarted the 62,000-BBL/d UU4 Reformer, as well as four other units, at its 437,000-BBl/d Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas, after they were shut down at the end of May for planned maintenance. During that restart, the 75,000-BBL/d UU3 Reformer shut down due to a process upset but restarted on July 28. The refinery is still derated due to low demand for auto fuel and product due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Deer Park Refining on July 28 shut down the 92,000-BBL/d Delayed Coker and 40,900-BBL/ gas-oil hydrotreater at its 340,000-BBL/d Deer Park, Texas, refinery, after the 70,000-BBL/d DU-1 (crude unit) and the 270,000-BBL/d DU-2 (crude unit) shut on July 27. A duration for this event is unknown at this time.

Marathon Petroleum on July 27 started a 14-day planned maintenance on the 6,000-BBL/d HF Alkylation unit at its 92,000-BBL/d Canton, Ohio, refinery.

International
SK Energy Company Limited has delayed the restart of the 170,000-BBL/d Crude 3, by 25 days, at its 840,000-BBL/d Ulsan Refinery in South Korea. This unit was forced to shut down on July 5 due to poor economics. Restart was initially expected on July 27, but the shutdown is now expected to continue until August 20.

PDVSA has not yet restarted the processing units at its 625,000-BBL/d Amuay Refinery in Venezuela, which were forced offline on July 18 due to utility issues. The refinery was operating at lower rates, by having two of its five crude units online, due to financial constraints and COVID-19. The 85,000 BBL/d Crude 1 and 120,000-BBL/d Crude 4 are in the process of being restarted, with completion expected in the next 48 hours. The 120,000-BBL/d Crude 2 and 180,000-BBL/d Crude 5 will continue offline, while the 120,000-BBL/d Crude 3, offline since late December 2017, will be kept under repairs until early 2021. In addition, planned repairs on the offline 80,000-BBL/d FCCU are still being performed.

Saudi Aramco on July 4 restarted the lone crude distillation unit at its 120,000-BBL/d Riyadh Refinery in Saudi Arabia. The unit was under an unplanned shutdown due to COVID-19 since June 1. Similarly, on July 15, the diesel hydrotreater and kerosene hydrotreater units were restarted due to an unplanned shutdown. Also on July 15, Saudi Aramco restarted four units that were shut down on February 2.

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