GS Caltex shuts CCR after transformer fire early Wednesday

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A fire broke out at a motor control center transformer at South Korean producer GS Caltex's refinery and petrochemical complex at Yeosu early Wednesday morning, reported Apic-online with reference to market sources.

This has led to the shutdown of the No. 2 continuous catalytic reformer, the sources added.

A source close to the company said that a Parex unit, which separates paraxylene from mixed xylenes, was also shut, while the toluene disproportionation unit and other toluene-to-PX units were operating as usual. If the No. 2 CCR, one of two CCRs, remains shut for a long time, the company would have to consider cutting the operating rates of the TDP unit and other toluene-to-PX units as well, the source said.

The company refused to comment, only saying that it was waiting for a detailed report from the plant management. It could only comment after receiving the report, the company source said.

As MRC informed before, in 2013, CB&I was awarded a contract by GS Caltex for the license, basic engineering and catalyst supply for a new paraxylene (PX) unit to be built in Yeosu, Korea. The unit will use the BP paraxylene technology, exclusively licensed by CB&I, and will have a world-scale design capacity. Start-up was expected in 2016.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- US oil refiner Marathon Petroleum Corp said on Thursday it would pay USD86 MM to settle lawsuits that allege injuries due to a January 2016 fire at its Galveston Bay, Texas refinery, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The company recorded an USD86 MM charge in its second-quarter earnings statements as a result. On a per-share basis, the charge was about 10 cents.

The charge was higher than the USD40 MM or 5 cents per share Marathon last week said it would incur as a result of the expected settlement.

As MRC wrote previously, in January 2017, Praxair, Inc. signed a long-term contract to supply hydrogen to Marathon Petroleum Corporation’s refinery in Garyville, Louisiana. The company will use the hydrogen to support an ultra-low-sulfur diesel project planned for 2018. Marathon Petroleum is the third-largest transportation fuels refiner in the US and operates an integrated refining, marketing and transportation system in the Midwest, East, Southeast and Gulf Coast. The hydrogen will be supplied through Praxair’s extensive Southeast Louisiana pipeline network.

Marathon Oil Corporation is a United States-based oil and natural gas exploration and production company. Principal exploration activities are in the United States, Norway, Equatorial Guinea, Poland, Angola and Iraqi Kurdistan.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Iraq's oil exports fell to 3.230 MMbpd in July from 3.273 MMbpd in June as no shipments were made from the northern Kirkuk field, the oil ministry said on Tuesday, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The volume announced by the ministry accounts for shipments from the fields supervised by the central government in Baghdad, and does not include those from the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

All the volumes sold in July came from the southern fields and none from Kirkuk, the only field supervised by the government in north, the statement said. In June, Iraq shipped 677,413 bbl from Kirkuk, an average of 22,000 bpd. The average sale price in July was USD43.80/bbl, generating USD4.386 B in revenue, the statement said. Iraq generated USD4.13 B from oil sales in June and sold its crude for USD42/bbl, the ministry said. Iraq is the second largest OPEC producer after Saudi Arabia.

As MRC informed before, in the first half of May 2017, Iraqi's oil ministry asked foreign companies and investors to bid for a project to build and operate a 300,000-bpd export-oriented refinery in Fao, near the southern city of Basra. Bidding documents provide for two investment models - build-own-operate and build-operate-transfer, said the ministry in a statement. They were available until May 31 and the bidding closed on Aug. 1d.

OPEC's second-largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia, Iraq's refining capacity was curtailed when Islamic State overran its largest oil processing plant in Baiji, north of Baghdad, in 2014.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Azerbaijan's oil shipments via Russia jumped to 818,664 t in January-July this year from 559,065 t in the same period last year, reported Reuters with reference to state oil company SOCAR.

The increase was partly because SOCAR shipped no oil via the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline in January and February last year, before resuming exports the following month after signing an agreement with Russian pipeline monopoly AK Transneft.

SOCAR aims to increase its shipments via Russia to 1.5 MMt this year. Last year it shipped 1.2 MMt, down 4.8% from 2015.

Azerbaijan sends only a small portion of its oil exports via Russia, using routes through Georgia and Turkey for the bulk of its crude shipments.

SOCAR's crude has a lower sulfur content than Russia's Urals blend. The company receives crude from Transneft to fill its loading slots at the Novorossiisk oil terminal.

As MRC wrote earlier, in October 2015, State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) subsidiary Azerikimya Production Union (PU) entered two units into operation at its ethylene and polyethylene (PE) plant in Sumgait, north of Baku. The company commissioned a 87,600-tonne/year (tpy) unit for the desulfurization of liquefied gas and a 120,000-tpy installation for the hydrogenation of butylene-butadiene fractions. Azerikimya also recently commissioned an isopropyl alcohol unit at the petrochemical plant, which produces 260,000 tpy of ethylene and PE.

SOCAR, which is keen on expanding operations in the retail oil products market abroad, is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in the domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan. SOCAR Polymer is a subsidiary of SOCAR. The entity was formed at the end of 2013 to run investments at the Sumgait Chemical Industrial Park, a production park which intends to become a chemical hub in central Asia.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Haifa Chemicals said on Wednesday it was closing shop and letting go of its 800 employees after failing to find a reasonable alternative to a large ammonia tank it needs to function which was ordered to be shut down earlier this year, reported Reuters.

An Israeli court in February ordered the company to shut down the country's largest ammonia tank, which has been a point of contention for years, with residents and environmental groups warning it is a major health hazard.

"Haifa Chemicals management decided to close the company and is forced to fire all its employees," it said in a statement.

The colossal, circular vat is located in the northern port of Haifa, Israel's third largest city, and can hold 12,000 t of ammonia, which is used in products such as fertilizer and explosives.

The government, looking to remove hazardous materials from the heavily populated area, has for more than a decade been looking for alternatives to the Haifa plant, including building a new one in the middle of the desert. It has made little progress.

Haifa Chemicals is owned by a US holding company Trance Resource Inc (TRI), which is controlled by Florida-based Trump Group. This has no connection to US President Donald Trump.

We remind that, as MRC wrote before, another major Israeli petrochemical and fertiliser producer - Israel Chemicals (ICL) - reported a smaller than expected drop in fourth-quarter 2016 profit and revenue, helped by its speciality products and record potash sales. ICL, which produces about a third of the world's bromine and is the sixth-largest potash producer, has sought to counter low commodities prices by diversifying into products such as advanced additives and speciality fertilisers.
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