Refinery news roundup: New details on works in Middle East - S&P Global Platts

London — Among planned maintenance on refineries in the Middle East, all refineries in Iran were set to undergo work in the Iranian year ending in March, with some of those turnarounds having been completed.

NEW AND REVISED ENTRIES

-- State-owned Saudi Aramco plans to take the 225,000 b/d condensate splitter at the 550,000 b/d Ras Tanura refinery offline for maintenance from January 5-20, market sources said. Saudi Aramco was not available for comment. The refinery was last shut for a scheduled turnaround in October 2017.

-- A basic overhaul of Iran's 250,000 b/d Imam Khomeini refinery has been completed, Alireza Amin, managing director of the refinery, said in December. "The third stage of basic repair of the RCD (reduced crude desulfurization) unit has been completed and today this unit was put back in operational service," Amin said at the time. The third stage of maintenance started October 23. "In the current year, we carried out the overhaul of nine units of the refinery in three stages and the RCD was the last part," he said. The Iranian year started March 21.

-- Iran's Tabriz had its last maintenance four years ago and has the next one scheduled for June involving units in its Zone A, such as the new gasoline production unit and LPG and distillation units. It will take 10-15 days and will impact some of the facility's products output.

-- State-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) aims to start operations at the residual fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC) unit at the Ruwais refinery by early 2019 after a fire in January 2017 forced its closure, a company spokesman said. The fire at a naphtha processing unit resulted in part closure of the site, although operations were subsequently restored quickly, with the exception of the RFCC unit. The company has been commissioning the unit, and said it would "take some time" before it resumed operations. Separately, ADNOC plans to shut the two condensate splitters at Ruwais for maintenance in the first quarter, naphtha market sources said. ADNOC has notified naphtha term lifters of the planned shutdown. Under the turnaround plan, one splitter will be taken offline in mid-January for three weeks. Following its restart, the second splitter will be shut for three weeks, market sources said.

EXISTING ENTRIES

-- Iran is set to stagger its refinery turnarounds in the current Iranian year to March 2019. Four of the country's refineries -- Abadan, Arak, Isfahan and Tabriz -- were due to undergo maintenance in spring 2018. All of the country's other refineries will also carry out turnarounds in the current Iranian year.

UPGRADES

NEW AND REVISED ENTRIES

-- Following a major upgrade project, Iran's Tabriz refinery expects to reduce its fuel oil production, managing director Gholamreza Bagheri said. The refinery currently produces 4 million liters/d (1.416 million mt/year) of fuel oil, which is primarily used as a feedstock for tar whose production amounts to around 1.2 million liters/d. "In a four-year period, the refinery plans to cut the fuel oil or mazut production from around 25% of our products to below 5%. This requires a complicated technical process to convert the products to various oil cuts, petrochemical feedstock and jet fuel," the managing director said.

The plan is currently in the "early work" stage, which might take 18-24 months. The refinery, whose nameplate capacity is 115,000 b/d, does not plan any capacity expansion but has focused on unit upgrades, including distillation. By the end of the current Iranian year, the whole of its gasoline output will match Euro 4 standard. The upgrade of the diesel production unit, started four years ago, was aimed at producing fuel with a sulfur content below 10 ppm. Since September, the refinery has been producing 6 million liters/d of diesel and jet fuel. Initially, it produced 1.5 million liters/d of diesel meeting the Euro 5 standard. In November, the amount was doubled and within the next 8-9 months all diesel will match Euro 5 standard.

EXISTING ENTRIES

-- Following debottlenecking works, the Jubail refinery's capacity will rise to 460,000 b/d, most likely in 2020, a company source said. The refinery's capacity was last increased by 10% earlier this year to 440,000 b/d after major maintenance on one of its distillation units. Currently, a major project for a new petrochemical complex at the site is moving to the FEED stage. Satorp is a joint venture between state-owned oil giant Aramco, which holds 62.5%, and France's Total with 37.5%.

In October, French oil major Total and Saudi Aramco finalized an agreement to build a petrochemical complex at the plant, which is on Saudi Arabia's Persian Gulf coast. The $5 billion project, first announced in April, will be next to the Satorp refinery in Jubail, a joint venture between the two companies, and was due to start up in 2024. It will also provide feedstock for other petrochemical plants in Jubail, the companies said. The project will maximize the synergy between the refinery and the petrochemical complex.

-- The Isfahan refinery in central Iran is ready to launch a new distillation unit which will add at least 120,000 b/d to its capacity. The unit took 36 months to complete, Fars news agency cited the refinery's deputy director Naser Kheiri as saying. The CDU and LPG units, which are part of Phase 3, were expected to come onstream within the next there months. Prior to the commissioning of the new CDU, the refinery operated with two crude distillation units and processed 370,000 b/d. The additional CDU will raise its capacity to 490,000 b/d.

-- Iran's Persian Gulf Star has started the third phase of its gasoline production operations, with the aim of raising production by 12 million liters/day, state television reported. With the completion of phase three, the capacity will rise to 360,000 b/d as the installed capacity of each phase is 120,000 b/d. The refinery is due to be fully operational by the end of the Iranian year on March 20, 2019, National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution Co. said. Separately, Iran plans to expand its Persian Gulf Star refinery, adding a fourth phase of facilities in coming years, NIORDC said in September. The new phase would boost capacity to 480,000 b/d.

-- State-owned Kuwait National Petroleum Corp. lit the first new flaring stack at the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery in early September as its long-awaited Clean Fuels Project draws to a close. The lighting of the flare would allow fuel gas to be pumped into the main feed pipeline at the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery, before pilot operations at new secondary units can begin, KNPC said. That was a prelude to starting operations at the refinery's new main units.

Contractors have been working on the Clean Fuels Project since the 2014 revamp and expanding capacity at the Mina al-Ahmadi and Mina Abdullah refineries. The two refineries are being integrated into a single complex, with new units added to improve the quality of products. The older 200,000 b/d Shuaiba refinery, which sits between the two refineries, was permanently shut in January.

-- Abu Dhabi has outlined a new downstream expansion plan to boost its refining capacity by more than 65% by 2025, with the construction of a new 600,000 b/d refining complex. It has also asked international contractors to submit bids for the construction of a major new facility to boost gasoline and aromatics production at the Ruwais refinery. The project will expand existing gasoline production units at Ruwais, boosting gasoline production to 9.4 million mt/year by 2022, from 5.2 million mt/year.

-- Iran expects to continue upgrading its refineries, apart from Arak where the modernization has already been completed. Investments in those projects are expected to be approved in the next Iranian year, which starts in March 2019. The country has so far signed contracts for development of the Tehran and Bandar Abbas oil refineries with Japan's JGC, Marubeni and Chiyoda-Dailim-Mitsui. An upgrading project is under way at Abadan in partnership with China's Sinopec.

Separately, there are memorandums of understanding with Daelim for an RFCC/RCD unit at the Isfahan refinery, and with South Korea's SK and Italy's Tecnimont for Tabriz. But Iran's plans to attract international investment to upgrade its downstream sector was dealt a blow when the South Korean contractor Daelim Industrial pulled out of a Eur1.83 billion deal to build new facilities at the Isfahan (Esfahan) refinery, citing the return of US sanctions on the country.

The US sanctions could also affect other South Korean projects in Iran. SK E&C signed a $1.6 billion deal in 2017 to renovate and upgrade the gasoline and diesel manufacturing facilities in the Tabriz oil refinery complex, northwest of Tehran. "We are still waiting for final approval from the Iranian government for the project with uncertainties over renewed US sanctions," an SK E&C official said.

-- Iraq has added another 10,000 b/d of refining capacity after completing the rehabilitation of a crude distillation unit at the Kasik refinery in the north of the country, the oil ministry said. Rehabilitation work continues at the refinery's other 10,000 b/d CDU.

-- Jordan Petroleum Refinery Co. has awarded a contract to US engineering firm KBR for the design of a new residue hydro-processing unit as part of its expansion of the Zarqa refinery in Jordan.

-- Bahrain Petroleum Co. has awarded a $4.2 billion contract for the expansion and modernization of the Sitra refinery, slated for completion in 2022 and taking total capacity to 360,000 b/d.

-- Iraq has started work on a 70,000 b/d expansion of its Basra refinery, in the south of the country, raising its capacity to 280,000 b/d from 210,000 b/d, with the addition of a fourth crude unit. The oil ministry hoped to complete the new distillation unit by the end of 2018.

-- US engineering company CB&I has been awarded a $95 million contract for the expansion and modernization of the 305,000 b/d Saudi Aramco Shell Refinery (Sasref) in Jubail.

LAUNCHES

NEW AND REVISED ENTRIES

-- Kuwait may add a new refinery in the south of the country, the CEO of Kuwait National Petroleum Company said in December, according to a statement by the Kuwait ministry of oil. KNPC CEO Al-Mutairi said the country expected the refining capacity to increase by 130,000 b/d to 160,000 b/d. Kuwait is currently building a refinery set to start operations in the next two years, and is also planning new units to produce cleaner products and minimize fuel oil production, as it switches to gas for power generation. The new 615,000 b/d Al-Zour refinery, set for completion in 2020, will boost Kuwait's total refining capacity to 1.4 million b/d.

EXISTING ENTRIES

-- Kuwait Petroleum International and Oman Oil Company, partners in the Duqm refinery in Oman, have secured $4.61 billion financing for the greenfield project, the refinery said. Construction of the plant, located in the special economic zone in Duqm, began in June 2018. The refinery isn't expected to begin final commissioning until the end of 2021, with full output targeted a year later. Oxea, the Oman Oil subsidiary and chemicals company, will invest in the project, according to local news reports. The company will invest in the creation of a manufacturing plant for oxo chemicals.

-- Canada's Pacific Future Energy has been awarded a contract to build a 150,000 b/d refinery outside the southern Iraqi town of Nassiriya, several senior officials said. The governor of Dhi Qar province, where Nassiriya is located, Yahya al-Nassiri, confirmed the award via email, but provided few details. Though the contract would be between Pacific Future Energy and oil ministry, the project would be supervised by state-owned South Refineries Company.

-- Kuwait's newest refinery is set to start operations in the next two years, but the Gulf state is already planning new units to produce cleaner products and minimize fuel oil production, as it switches to gas for power generation. The new 615,000 b/d Al-Zour refinery, set for completion in 2020, will boost Kuwait's total refining capacity to 1.4 million b/d.

-- Iraq opened a downstream tender, hoping to attract engineering and construction companies to build a new refinery in Basra province.

-- Iraq signed a contract with two Chinese companies for the country's first new refinery to be built with foreign investors. The contract, with PowerChina and Norinco, covers construction and operation of a new 300,000 b/d export orientated refinery, along with an integrated petrochemicals complex near Iraq's existing oil export facilities on the southern Al-Fao peninsula, which leads to the Persian Gulf. The oil ministry is still seeking investors for a 100,000 b/d refinery in Wasit province, a 70,000 b/d refinery in Samawa province, and a 70,000 b/d refinery in Kirkuk.

For the latter, it signed a contract with Rania International in February 2018. It has also added 70,000 b/d site at Diwaniya, in Qadisiya province, south of Baghdad, a new 150,000 b/d project to be built in the west Anbar province and another in Qayarah, territory previously occupied by the IS. It did not say if it will be a completely new construction or a building out of the existing Qayarah refinery, which has a 20,000 b/d nameplate capacity but has been operating at 4,000 b/d.

-- Construction of the 140,000 b/d Karbala refinery, Iraq's first new downstream facility in decades, has stalled due to a lack of finance. Work is also yet to start on the 150,000 b/d Missan refinery.

-- Houston-based GTC Technology has agreed a deal to provide a gasoline production unit to Iraq's Al-Barham Group, which plans to build a refining complex in the northern city of Kirkuk.

-- Saudi Aramco aimed to start up its greenfield 400,000 b/d Jizan (Jazan) refinery in the second half of 2018 as the project has been nearly completed.

--Elza Turner, elza.turner@spglobal.com

--Edited by Dan Lalor, daniel.lalor@spglobal.com