MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to complete the permanent shutdown of its 211,146 barrel-per-day (bpd) Convent, Louisiana, refinery within 10 days, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to sources familiar with the company’s plans.
Shell spokesman Curtis Smith declined on Thursday to comment on the company’s timeline for idling the refinery.
Shell has been unable to sell the refinery since putting it on the auction block in July. The plant became unprofitable in March as fuel demand was hammered in the COVID-19 pandemic. Shell said on Nov. 5 it would shut the refinery.
Shell began shutting production unit at the refinery last Sunday, idling on Monday night the 12,000-bpd isomerization unit, the sources said. The 30,000-bpd diesel hydrotreater was brought down on Thursday.
Shell is in the process of shutting the 45,000-bpd heavy oil hydrocracker, called the H-Oil Unit, which converts residual crude oil into diesel fuels, the sources said. Before the pandemic, the H-Oil Unit was one of the most profitable units at the refinery.
The 92,000-bpd gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracker (FCC) is scheduled to be taken down over the weekend, according to the sources. Shutdowns of the alkylation unit and reformer will follow along with hydrotreaters next week, the sources said.
Among the last units to be shut are the light ends section of the small crude distillation unit and the entire large crude distillation unit (CDU), according to the sources.
As MRC informed before, Royal Dutch Shell plc. said in November that its petrochemical complex of several billion dollars in Western Pennsylvania is about 70% complete and in the process to enter service in the early 2020s. The plant's costs are estimated to be USD6-USD10 billion, where ethane will be transformed into plastic feedstock. The facility is equipped to produce 1.5 million metric tons per year (mmty) of ethylene and 1.6 mmty of polyethylene (PE), two important constituents of plastics.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC"s ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,760,950 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020, up by 3% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 978,870 tonnes in January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.
Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
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