Phillips 66 unit shut suddenly
HOUSTON: Phillips 66’s 247,000 barrel-per-day Alliance, Louisiana, refinery was shut down when it briefly lost power during a thunderstorm, the company said in a statement.
“All refinery emergency shutdown systems functioned as designed, and all appropriate regulatory notifications have been made,” Phillips 66 spokesman Dennis Nuss said, adding there were no injuries due to the sudden shutdown.
The power outage took place as a severe thunderstorms were raking the area south of New Orleans. Energy industry intelligence service Genscape said the refinery’s 250,000 bpd crude distillation unit and 104,000 bpd gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit were among the units out of production. Nuss did not say when the units were expected to resume production.
The incident occurred on Saturday, the filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said, adding that charge was also reduced to certain units before they were brought back online.
The filing listed a sulphur recovery unit, crude units, fluid catalytic cracking regenerator and a hydrotreater as sources of emissions due to the incident.
Total refinery restoring output
HOUSTON: Total was restoring production to normal levels at its 225,500 barrel per day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas, crude oil refinery following a weekend loss of steam supply due to a malfunction in the cogeneration plant, sources familiar with refinery operations said.
This is the second malfunction that has affected steam supply at the refinery in two weeks. The weekend malfunction was due to the loss of fuel gas supply to the plant, the sources said. Steam is used in refining crude oil and producing refined products. A Total spokeswoman declined to discuss operations at the refinery.
Motiva operations restored
HOUSTON:The 95,000-barrel-per-day coking unit at Motiva Enterprises 600,250-bpd Port Arthur, Texas, refinery has returned to normal operation, said sources familiar with plant operations.
The coker malfunctioned and Motiva began working to get the unit back to normal operation, the sources said. Motiva said it had initiated unplanned repairs on an unidentified unit to improve operations. Motiva’s Port Arthur refinery is the nation’s largest. Motiva is co-owned by Royal Dutch Shell and Saudi Aramco.
PKN denies it delivered Iran’s gas
WARSAW: Poland’s largest oil refiner PKN Orlen said it did not deliver a gas condensate cargo of Iranian origin for its Mazeikiai refinery in Lithuania, denying an report last week.
“PKN Orlen hereby informs that the reports of PKN Orlen’s purchasing gas condensate from Iran for Orlen’s refinery in Lithuania (Mazeikiai refinery), published in some news services, are totally untrue”, PKN said in a statement. Traders told Reuters that the 122,000-tonne cargo was shipped to the port of Butinge. Three of the sources said that it was shipped via Southeast Asia.
Wintershall makes small oil find
OSLO: German energy firm Wintershall, a subsidiary of chemicals giant BASF, made a small oil discovery near Statoil’s Kristin field in the Norwegian Sea, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said.
The well encountered two oil columns in sandstone of generally poor reservoir quality and the find is estimated to contain between 6 million and 50 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalents, the NPD said. Wintershall owns 40 per cent of the licence, Repsol has 30 per cent and DEA Norge owns 30 per cent.
Idemitsu shuts Chiba CDU
TOKYO: Japanese oil refiner Idemitsu Kosan said it shut its sole 200,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) crude distillation unit (CDU) at Chiba refinery in eastern Japan for scheduled maintenance.
The maintenance will likely last about a month-and-a-half to two months, the company has said. The turnaround on the sole 200,000 bpd CDU is likely to last until around June 10, an industry source familiar with the matter separately told Reuters.
Petroperu offers a cargo of fuel oil
NEW YORK: Peruvian state-run Petroperu has launched a tender to sell a 200,000 barrel cargo of fuel oil or heavy fuel oil (HFO) for delivery at Talara terminal, according to a document seen by Reuters. The oil firm earlier in March offered to sell a similar cargo of 180,000 barrels of fuel oil or HFO for delivery April 11-15.
For this tender, it will accept bids and they must refer to fuel oil number 6 prices at New York harbour.
JX May crude refining up 8pc
TOKYO:Japan’s top oil refiner, JX Nippon Oil & Energy, said it would refine 5.02 million kilolitres of crude oil in May for domestic consumption, up 8 percent from a year earlier.
Its April crude refining for domestic consumption was estimated at 4.44 million kl, down 13 percent from the year-earlier period, and compared with its original plan of 4.58 million kl.
Japan’s biggest oil refiner said it would conduct scheduled maintenance on the 110,000 barrels per day (bpd) No3 crude distillation unit (CDU) at its Mizushima-B plant from May 27 to August 6.
Valero reports flaring at plant
NEW YORK: Valero Energy reported flaring at its Corpus Christi West plant in Texas, according to a message on a community alerting system. The company was not immediately available for comment. Valero operates a 200,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Corpus Christi.
