MOSCOW (MRC) -- Pakistan Refinery Limited is seeking to buy a second-hand refinery complex to upgrade its operations and increase output to help meet rising demand for petroleum products as the country emerges from a pandemic-driven slump, reported Reuters.
The South Asian country currently has five refineries with a total capacity of 417,000 barrels per day (bpd), according to Pakistan's 2020 economic survey, the largest of which stands at 150,000 bpd.
If the purchase goes ahead PRL could double its capacity to 100,000 bpd.
The company this week sought offers to purchase a second-hand refinery complex for relocation to Pakistan, according to an advertisement placed in international media. It was undertaking an upgrade and potential expansion project to produce Euro V specification and high speed diesel oil. For this purpose, it intends to purchase a pre-owned refinery complex with one or more conversion units, which should have a 50,000 to 100,000 bpd throughput design.
Pakistan's total refining capacity is 19.37 million tonnes per year, according to the Economic Survey, while the country consumes 19.68 million tonnes of petroleum products annually. The government says refinery capacity is not being fully utilised on account of financial as well as technical problems, and is supplying only 11.59 million tonnes per year, with the rest of the country's needs imported.
As MRC informed previously, in early April 2020, Pakistan’s Attock Refinery was operating its 54,000 barrels per day (bpd) plant at 29% capacity and was preparing to shut the complex in a week’s time because of weak local demand. Iit was the third Pakistani refinery to halt operations because of the collapse in demand as the country implemented a lockdown to try to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
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