Crude Processing

Originally, the project was expected to be completed this year, but the pandemic has pushed its completion back to by two years.

State-owned INA had already begun work on the complex, which will include a delayed coker, in 2021 after making an FID in 2020.

The $7B upgrade, which has been delayed to 2024 because of the coronavirus pandemic, will raise the plant's refining capacity by 100K b/d to 370-380K b/d and will allow heavier crudes to be processed, according to Chief Executive Officer Mark Thomas of state-owned energy firm Nogaholding.

While the delayed coker was previously expected to come online in 2020, the 95K-b/d refinery in Belarus is expected to have the unit produce its first batch by the year's end.

An initial agreement has been signed by Turkish conglomerate Limak Holding and Swedish company Seab with Iraq's state-owned North Refineries co. to invest in a 70K-b/d refinery in Qayara.

The upgraded FCCU began operating on Sept. 1 with an increased residual oil processing rate of 50%, compared to 35% previously, according to plant operator Idemitsu Kosan.

In July, the Polish refiner reported that it has purchase base design and license from US EPC firm KBR for a bottom-of-the-barrel complex, which will include a solvent deasphalting units and FCCUs, to upgrade residue into high-value products, such as gasoline, diesel, propylene, and gases.

Venezuela's state-owned oil company has decided to incorporate the PetroCedeno heavy crude upgrader, which was designed to upgrade 200K b/d of extra heavy crude from the Orinoco oil belt into 180K b /d of 30-32ºAPI Zuata Sweet synthetic crude for export, into its refining system.

As part of a 20B-ruble ($24MM) contract, Spain's Tecnicas Reunidas will perform managing project design, equipment delivery, management services for construction and installation in addition to testing of a delayed coking unit (DCU) that will be part of Gazprom Neft's 213K-b/d Moscow refinery's planned deep refining Euro+ complex, which will also house a hydrocracker.

The installation of the new 2MM-mt/y coking unit at Gazprom Neft's 424K-b/d refinery in Omsk has now been completed.