REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: Strong demand in Asia-Pacific

Oil products demand strengthening in Asia-Pacific.

The Asian gasoline market has strengthened on the back of strong buying interest from Indonesia and Malaysia.

Malaysian demand was expected to remain supported by improved mobility following the planned turnaround of the Meleka refinery, market sources said.

Indonesia's gasoline demand was also supported in June, with the country seeking cargoes with prompt delivery dates, market sources said. It was expected to buy gasoline from China.

Pakistan's oil product sales in May increased 28% on the back of higher sales of fuel oil as government-owned power producers bought more of the product to reduce load shedding hours in the country. The country's overall petroleum product sales last month amounted to 2.174 million mt, compared with 1.692 million mt a year earlier, Oil Companies Advisory Council data showed. Consumption of fuel oil, or furnace oil, in May rose 174% year on year to 461,000 mt.

Sales of fuel oil were higher owing to a shortage of LNG in the country as the government was hesitant to buy LNG from the market due to high prices, said Saad Ziker, research analyst at Karachi-based brokerage house Topline Securities.

Motor gasoline sales in May totaled 797,000 mt, up 9% year on year, while gasoil sales were up by 12% to 852,000 mt, the data showed. A rise in demand was due to improvement in economic and farm activities during the period under review. Harvesting season also bolstered the demand for gasoil, with the harvesting of wheat in full swing.

Meanwhile, more renewables projects were announced in the region.

India's renewable energy company ACME Group and the state government of Karnataka have signed a memorandum of understanding to set up a 1.2 million mt/year renewable hydrogen and ammonia plant. ACME and Karnataka state are expected to commence construction of the plant between 2022 to 2027, which would include a solar power unit to back the plant.

The parties will invest Rupees 520 billion ($6.7 billion) for the unit to be built in Mangalore in Karnataka state. The state government would help obtain the necessary registrations, approvals and clearances.

South Korean oil refiner Hyundai Oilbank will push for "white bio business" in a move towards the energy transition focus on reducing oil refining segment and cutting carbon emissions. "The company has decided to push for white bio as one of its three main future businesses along with blue hydrogen and environmentally friendly chemicals, as we have judged that the existing oil-based oil refinery and petrochemicals are uncertain to achieve sustainable growth," it said in a statement.

"White bio" refers to replacing materials from the chemicals industry with renewables such as plants, microorganisms, and enzymes so as to reduce carbon emissions. Under the white bio project, Hyundai Oilbank plans to build a biodiesel plant with a capacity of 130,000 mt/year by 2023 and a hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) plant with a capacity of 500,000 m/year by 2024 in its company in Daesan on the country's west coast. "In a longer-term road map, the company plans to expand its white bio capacity to 1 million mt/year by 2030," a company official said.

Separately, a minor technical issue has been reported at Sri Lanka's Sapugaskanda refinery, the country's Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekara said in a tweet May 30. The refinery commenced operations May 27 when it was due to receive a crude cargo and was expected to start production in six days, Wijesekara. The refinery, which had received a cargo of Russian crude, halted operations March 20 due to shortages of crude oil, according to local media reports. Previously it had resumed operations at the end of January, following a shutdown at the start of the month, due to a shortage of foreign currency for buying crude oil. Sapugaskanda was also halted mid-November amid shortages of crude oil but resumed operations Dec. 7.

NEW AND ONGOING MAINTENANCE

UPGRADES

LAUNCHES

New and ongoing maintenance

New and revised entries

Asia-Pacific

* Malaysia's Melaka refinery was undergoing scheduled maintenance expected to last until around mid-June, according to market sources.

India

** India's Numaligarh Refinery Ltd. plans to carry out a maintenance shutdown in March-April 2023, as part of a regular turnaround after a gap of four years. The maintenance will last 30 days during which operations at the refinery will come to a halt. "All units will be shut as we are a single train refinery," a company official said. The refinery, in the eastern state of Assam, has been carrying out an expansion project to raise the processing capacity to 9 million mt (180,000 b/d) by 2024-25 (April-March). The expansion plan will add a second crude distillation unit of 6 million mt/year. In April, the refinery's run rate stood at 110% compared with 90% a year earlier.

** India's Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd plans to carry out maintenance at the Mumbai refinery, involving a shutdown of the smaller crude distillation unit during the October-December period.

** HPCL plans to carry out maintenance at Vizag at the smaller crude distillation unit and some secondary units during the January-March 2023 period.

Existing entries

India

** India's Reliance Industries Ltd deferred a planned turnaround during the January-March quarter at its integrated refinery complex to gain from higher crack margins, company officials said. They did not say when the deferred turnaround plan would be carried out. Market participants said the refiner was scheduled to carry out works on the crude distillation unit at its export-focused unit during March for about three weeks, but the plan was deferred to the second half of 2022.

** Indian BPCL's Mumbai refinery plans to carry out a maintenance shutdown for about three weeks in May. BPCL's maintenance plan includes the shutdown of a 120,000 b/d crude unit and secondary units including a diesel hydro desulfurizer and hydrogen generation. "The maintenance [is expected] to take around 20-25 days," an official said. The works had been scheduled for late March but were delayed due to higher cracks. The No. 2 crude distillation unit at Mumbai will continue to operate, although overall throughput at the refinery will be lower. A turnaround for around a month at a 10,000 mt/day diesel hydrotreater at the refinery is also planned from mid-July.

** India's Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals plans a short maintenance shutdown in the first quarter of the fiscal year starting April 2022, company officials said. The refinery has no plans to carry out any maintenance till the end of the current fiscal year in March 2022.

** India's Kochi refinery has no plans to carry out any maintenance shutdown in fiscal year 2021-22 (April-March). The next maintenance shutdown will be for 30 days to carry out an annual turnaround, which is due every four years. The annual turnaround would be in the second half of fiscal 2022-23.

** India's state-run BPCL-owned Bina refinery in central India will have a planned shutdown in 2022. The shutdown will be for regular maintenance and comes after four years. "The duration and magnitude of the shutdown are still being worked out," said a senior official at the refinery.

Asia-Pacific

** New Zealand's Refining NZ said in December 2021 that together with Fortescue Future Industries, it is studying the "feasibility of production, storage, distribution, and export of industrial-scale green hydrogen" from its former Marsden Point refinery. Marsden Point has now closed and the import terminal on the site was officially launched on April 1.

** South Korean refiner Hyundai Oilbank planned to shut its No. 1 CDU at Daesan for a turnaround over several weeks in April-May. It operates two CDUs with a combined capacity of 520,000 b/d -- the No. 1 with 160,000 b/d and No. 2 with 360,000 b/d -- at its Daesan complex. "The company will not shut the other CDU for maintenance this year so as to keep its crude run rate high as refining margins have been improving," an official said.

** ExxonMobil Australia will integrate the common infrastructure between the Altona refinery in Melbourne and the new Mobil Melbourne fuel import and storage terminal over the course of 2022, with the conversion expected to be carried "over the next few years." The infrastructure that is not part of the future terminal will be safely decommissioned. The process of shutting down the refinery started at the end of August 2021 after the company announced its plans to close it in February 2021. Most facilities have been halted, but some parts of the refinery, including the flares and boilers, will continue to operate in 2022 "to ensure a safe site."

** BP Australia is undertaking a feasibility study on producing green hydrogen at the Kwinana refinery site. It will work on the project in partnership with Macquarie Capital and with funding from the Western Australian government. The company plans to repurpose the site as a clean energy hub, "which will include the production of renewable fuels," it said. BP also said it was "already underway with plans to develop a renewable fuels plant at the site, producing sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel." BP announced its plan to shut the refinery in October 2020, and wind down refining activities over the following six months. Refining activities were completed by March 2021.

Upgrades

New and revised entries

** India's Numaligarh Refinery, in the eastern state of Assam, has been carrying out an expansion project to raise the processing capacity to 9 million mt (180,000 b/d) by 2024-25 (April-March). The expansion plan will add a second crude distillation unit of 6 million mt/year. Numaligarh Refinery Ltd. has finalized more details of the new diesel hydrotreating unit it will be installing as part of its multi-year expansion. Toyo Engineering Corp. said Dec. 9 that its Toyo Engineering India subsidiary had been awarded a contract by NRL for the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of 3.55 million mt/year diesel hydrotreating unit. Separately, Axens will provide technical support and license a naphtha hydrotreating unit, continuous catalytic reforming unit, isomerization, and fluid catalytic cracker. The company was aiming to complete the expansion project by 2025.

** Pakistan Refinery Ltd has awarded a front end engineering design, or FEED, contract to Wood Group UK for the upgrade and expansion of the refinery. The project includes upgrading the existing refinery from hydro skimming to deep conversion which as a result will "significantly reduce production" of high sulfur fuel oil, also known as furnace oil, and maximize production of Euro 5 standard diesel and gasoline. The project also includes doubling the crude processing capacity to 100,000 b/d. The upgraded complex will also produce propylene, which is a valuable feedstock for petrochemicals. Following the completion of FEED, the refinery will award an engineering procurement and construction contract. Pakistan Refinery plans to complete the project in five years, or around 2027.

Existing entries

** Pertamina and the local unit of France's Air Liquide Indonesia have agreed to cooperate to develop carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technology at the Balikpapan refinery. Pertamina President Director Nicke Widyawati and Air Liquide's Group CEO, Francois Jackow, signed a Joint Study Agreement (JSA) May 17. Within the framework of this JSA, Pertamina and Air Liquide will conduct a joint study on the application of CO2 Syngas and Flue Gas capture technology from hydrogen production in the Balikpapan refinery area. The captured CO2 emissions will then be compressed and channeled to a potential CO2 storage area in the Kutai Basin, East Kalimantan, as a solution for low-carbon hydrogen production or blue hydrogen.

Separately, Indonesia's Balikpapan is in the process of building an RFCC unit, which is expected to be operational in 2024 and have a 90,000 b/d capacity. In the first phase of the refinery upgrade, scheduled to be completed in 2024, the facility would see its total refining capacity increase from 260,000 b/d to 360,000 b/d. In the second phase, the refinery would have increased flexibility in its crude oil supply, enabling it to process sour crude with sulfur content of as much as 2%. The second phase is scheduled for completion in 2026.

** Australia's Viva Energy will upgrade its Geelong refinery to produce ultra-low sulfur gasoline by 2025. The upgrade will cost about $300 million, of which $125 million would be from the Federal Government's Refinery Upgrades Program.

Separately, Viva Energy said it was to acquire LyondellBasell Australia, or LBA -- a Geelong-based national polymer manufacturer and distributor which has its production facility inside the footprint of Geelong Refinery. The business is complementary to Viva Energy's refining operations, with Geelong Refinery's propylene production utilized as the feedstock in LBA's manufacturing operations.

** Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical, operator of the Dung Quat refinery in central Vietnam, has submitted a final proposal to expand the refinery to PetroVietnam, which will then seek approval from the central government. Under the current proposal, the refinery capacity will be expanded to 7.6 million mt/year from current 6.5 million mt/year. Its gasoline and diesel products will be upgraded to meet Euro-V standards. Its crude oil mixture will include 53% of Azeri BTC and 47% of ESPO, but the exact percentage of each will be clarified in the final front-end engineering and design. The new refinery will be able to process up to 14 crude oil types, including two domestic and 12 imported types. BSR aims to kick off the expansion and upgrade project later this year, finish in 2025 and begin commercial operation in early 2026.

** Pertamina's Balongan refinery is upgrading and aims to increase capacity to 150,000 b/d. It is also upgrading its residue cracking unit and expects to complete the revamp in 2022. The unit will have 83,000 b/d capacity. The project is expected to be completed in 2026. Pertamina will build the project in three phases. The first phase will raise refining capacity to 150,000 b/d by 2022, from 125,000 b/d. The second and third phases will increase the product yield from the refinery, including from the new petrochemical plant.

** Pertamina is carrying out upgrades at Cilacap, Dumai and Plaju refineries. Pertamina will go ahead and revamp its Cilacap refinery without Saudi Aramco, raising capacity from 348,000 b/d to 370,000 b/d. In May 2020, Pertamina and South Korean Consortium DH Global Holdings Co signed a memorandum of understanding for the upgrade of the Dumai refinery complex, with plans to increase the refinery's operating capacity.

** India's Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. expects higher refining margins from its Vizag refinery on the east coast in 2023-24, after the completion of a residual bottom upgrade. Vizag refinery's modernization project, involving capacity expansion, will be completed by December 2022. The project is expected to be completed in March 2022, while the residual bottom upgrade has been set to be completed by December 2022. The capacity expansion project has been delayed by three years, mainly due to the pandemic. The expansion aims to raise the refinery's existing capacity of 8.3 million mt/year to 15 million mt/year. The modernization project involves installation of primary processing units such as a CDU, replacing one of the three existing CDUs, a hydrocracker, and a naphtha isomerization unit. The initial deadline for the completion of the project along with a bottom-upgrade program was March 2020.

** India's Indian Oil Corp. will invest around $1.2 billion for a new crude pipeline system to connect the Mundra port on the west coast with its Panipat refinery in northern India. The new pipeline system will have a nameplate capacity of 17.5 million mt/year. "The project is expected to be completed within 36 months and would be synchronized with the commissioning of the Panipat refinery expansion project," IOC said in a regulatory filing in December. The project will meet enhanced crude oil demand arising from the capacity expansion of the refinery to 25 million mt/year by 2025 from 15 million mt/year. The expansion project will be part of a petrochemicals integration plan for Panipat refinery. The expansion program includes an Indmax unit for deriving maximum value from the petrochemical molecule, a polypropylene unit, and a lube complex for producing lube oil base stock.

** SK Innovation and Energy has selected Honeywell UOP for a feasibility study to retrofit the hydrogen plant at its Ulsan refinery with carbon capture. SK will "explore capturing and sequestering 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide" from the existing hydrogen production assets. From 2026, the CO2 will be reinjected in depleted natural gas reservoirs, Honeywell said.

** Indian Oil Corp. has received environmental clearance for a capacity upgrade project at its Mathura refinery. The capacity expansion project includes residue upgrade and distillate yield improvement programs. The upgraded crude processing capacity will be 11 million mt/year.

** India's Nayara Energy will complete the first phase of its petrochemicals expansion project, including the setting up of a 450,000 mt/year polypropylene plant, in 2023 at its 20 million mt/year refinery complex at Vadinar, Gujarat. Nayara, as part of its broader plan for its petrochemicals vertical, will set up a new propylene recovery unit along with upgrading the existing fluid catalytic cracking and LPG treatment units.

** Reliance Industries Ltd. has no investment commitment for any refinery capacity expansion plan at its Jamnagar integrated complex, company officials said. Reliance has two refineries at the world's biggest refinery complex in Gujarat on India's west coast with a combined capacity of 68.2 million mt/year. Reliance has received environmental clearance for a capacity expansion proposal at its export-focused refinery from 35.2 million mt/year to 41 million mt/year. Reliance also applied for regulatory clearance for a capacity expansion proposal at its domestically focused refinery from 33 million mt/year to 40.5 million mt. However, it aborted the proposal after marketing conditions changed.

** State-run Indian Oil Corp. has awarded an engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning contract to Paris-based Technip for its expansion project at the Barauni refinery in the eastern state of Bihar. The contract involves the installation of a 1 million mt/year "once-through" hydrocracker unit, a fuel gas treatment unit and associated facilities. The expansion project will raise its capacity by 50% to 180,000 b/d and add petrochemicals such as polypropylene to its product portfolio. The initial plan for completing the capacity project was scheduled for 2021. But the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic may result in this being rescheduled.

** IOC-owned Bongaigaon refinery plans to raise its capacity to 4.5 million mt/year.

** IOC's Haldia refinery will launch a second catalytic dew axing unit with 270,000 mt/year capacity in 2023. The unit will produce advanced Group III Lubes Oil Base Stock. The unit is expected to be commissioned in January 2023.

** IOC-owned Gujarat refinery's capacity expansion project is set to be completed by Sept. 30, 2024 -- a delay of 1-1/2 years from the previous deadline. The delay is mainly due to the pandemic. The existing smaller capacity atmospheric unit and vacuum units will be replaced by a large atmospheric vacuum unit. The project also involves a revamp of the existing hydrogen generation unit, a new n-butanol processing unit and a revamp of the linear alkylbenzenes unit. IOC plans to raise the capacity of the Gujarat refinery to 360,000 b/d by March 2023, from the current 275,000 b/d.

** IOC-owned Paradip refinery will install the first stage of a Grassroot Needle Coker Unit by using its own in-house technology. The proposed unit will have a Calcined Needle Coke production capacity of 56 kilotons/year. The company does not plan any expansion for its Paradip refinery, whose overall capacity is 15 million mt/year.

** French company Axens has been selected to provide technological support to Chennai Petroleum's 9 million mt/year Cauvery Basin Refinery project at Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu. IOC approved a proposal for a grassroots refinery project of its subsidiary Chennai Petroleum Corp. Ltd. at Cauvery basin, known as the Cauvery Basin Refinery. CPCL initially set up a refinery at the Cauvery basin in south India with a capacity of 500,000 mt/year in 1993, and later expanded the capacity to 1 million mt/year in 2002. Now, CPCL is expanding the capacity of CBR and as part of that, Axens will provide technologies for a Naphtha Hydrotreating Unit, Reforming unit (Octanizing), C5-C6 isomerization unit, and VGO Hydrotreater incorporating ZPJE spiraled tube heat exchangers technology.

** Pakistan's National Refinery is considering installing a continuous catalytic reformer to produce Euro 5 motor gasoline while stopping production of naphtha. The project is expected to take at least four or five years to complete. It is continuing to study the possibility of a hydrocracker/bottom-of-the-barrel upgrade, aimed at upgrading fuel oil to value-added products. For the highly capital-intensive project of converting fuel oil into diesel and naphtha a joint project among Pakistan's five refineries is under initial consideration. A joint venture is being considered to carry out the project as it is not feasible for low-capacity refineries on a standalone basis.

** Pakistan's largest refiner, Cnergyico -- formerly Byco -- plans to convert the bulk of its fuel oil output capacity into producing gasoline and diesel meeting international Euro 5 standards, Chairman Mohammad Wasi Khan said in September 2021. Byco Petroleum typically produces 30%-40% fuel oil, or furnace oil as it is commonly called in the country, from each barrel of crude oil it refines. The product is mainly used by utilities for power generation. But furnace oil demand has weakened after utilities started using LNG, which is a cleaner alternative, said Wasi Khan. "Byco started development work to modernize its refinery by launching the Upgrade-I project at the start of this year which would be completed by 2025," he said. Civil work on the site and the arrival of equipment and machinery are underway, and the company is getting ready to install additional units. "Byco seeks to install 14 plants altogether, including fluid catalytic cracking and diesel hydro desulfurization units," Wasi Khan said. By the time it finishes, the company will have 19 plants at its oil refining complex. This equipment will help convert the bulk of Byco's furnace oil output into Euro 5 compliant gasoline and diesel and produce other high-quality fuels like jet fuel and kerosene. Meanwhile, Axens has been selected by Byco to support its upgrade projects Phases I, II and III. The scope of Axens' work includes "the supply of process design package for integration of three existing units into FCC gasoline hydrotreating configuration" as well as catalysts and adsorbents for the sulfur recovery unit and distillate hydrotreaters 2 and 3, and distillate hydrotreater 3 reactor internals. The start-up date of the complete Phases I, II and III is expected in Q2, 2024. Currently Pakistan's Byco refinery is rebranding under the name of Cnergyico Pk Ltd.

** Pakistan's Attock refinery reiterated in its latest financial report that it was in the process of upgrades, including of the diesel desulfurization unit. The Front End Engineering Design for the Continuous Catalyst Regeneration complex has been completed.

** Pertamina will start producing biodiesel at its Cilacap Refinery Unit IV in December. It will begin to produce around 3,000 b/d of D-100 bbm, with an increased production of an additional 6,000 b/d of combined D-100 bbm and B30 biodiesel blend set to come on stream from December 2022. Units are also being built at Plaju refinery for an additional 20,000 b/d in biofuel production. Pertamina will use Honeywell UOP technology to produce advanced biofuels at Plaju and Cilacap.

** Indonesia's TPPI has laid out the next steps of its upgrading works at its Tuban refinery, setting 2024 as the target for the completion of its new olefin project. TPPI will also continue with its aromatics revamping project. The olefins project is slated for completion by 2024, while the aromatics revamping project will be completed by 2022.

** Petron Malaysia has been considering a plan to more than double capacity at its 88,000 b/d Port Dickson refinery in Malaysia to 178,000 b/d.

** Hengyi Industries has selected a flexi-coking technology for a second time as part of its expansion project in Pulau Muara Besar. The Brunei refinery already started up a 1.1 million mt/year flexi-coking unit at the end of 2019. Hengyi Industries has selected the technology for its new Phase II expansion project. The flexi-coking unit, due for a start-up in June 2024, will upgrade 2.1 million mt/year of vacuum residue, FCC slurry oil and steam cracker pyoil into valuable distillates and flexigas. Hengyi Industries will use "advanced reforming and aromatics technologies" from Honeywell UOP for the integrated petrochemical complex in Puala Muara Besar, Brunei. The Brunei complex will include an aromatics block comprising CCR Platformer to convert naphtha into aromatics, as well as an aromatics complex to recover high-purity paraxylene from mixed xylenes. The latter will produce up to 2.3 million mt/year of PX. The complex will also include naphtha hydrotreater and olefin removal process unit among others. In addition, UOP is providing VGO unicracking unit and diesel unicracking unit targeting maximum naphtha production. The first phase of the Pulau Muara Besar refinery envisages crude processing capacity of 8 million mt/year, while in the second phase, the refinery will add 14 million mt/year of crude processing capacity, bringing overall capacity to 22 million mt/year.

** A $4 billion clean fuel project is being undertaken at Thailand's Sriracha refinery. The upgrade is slated to be completed in 2023 and will increase the refinery's capacity from 275,000 b/d to 400,000 b/d, boosting the yield of cleaner products.

** Two separate consortiums have submitted bids for the engineering, procurement, and construction contract to build, upgrade and expand the Dung Quat refinery in central Vietnam. The upgrade will raise the capacity of Dung Quat to 8.5 million mt/year from current 6.5 million mt/year.

** Saudi Aramco and S-Oil signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on a $6 billion steam cracker and olefin downstream project at Onsan due for completion in 2024.

** ExxonMobil announced a final investment decision at its Singapore complex. The project includes an expansion aimed at converting "fuel oil and other bottom-of-the-barrel crude products into higher-value lube base stocks and distillates." Startup is set for 2023.

** Petron plans to expand and upgrade its Bataan refinery in Limay. There was no timeline for when the expansion will take place. The refinery's capacity will be increased by 100,000 b/d of condensates and light crude oils, from current capacity of 180,000 b/d.

Launches

New and revised entries

** Malaysia's Pengerang Refining and Petrochemical integrated complex, also known as PRefChem, has resumed the start-up of the refinery by introducing crude to the CDU on May 6 and has "successfully produced several product run-downs" including atmospheric residue, atmospheric gasoil, kerosene, naphtha and LPG, Petronas said May 24. Petronas also said the start-up will strengthen its position in "capturing opportunities from the current market upside, with the Asian refining margins expected to maintain their resilience in 2022." The refinery, also known as RAPID, was expected to resume full operations in May. It delayed its restart several times, following a fire and explosion at the diesel hydrotreater unit on March 15, 2020. The plant, part of the Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex at Johor in the south of the Malay peninsula, was launched in late 2019.

Existing entries

** India considers moving location of the 1.2 million b/d Ratnagiri refinery, originally earmarked for the west coast. However, it can spur economic development through the growth of downstream industries if it is moved to the Vidarbha region, in the eastern part of the state of Maharashtra, oil ministry officials said March 31.

Bitumen produced from the proposed refinery would speed up road construction activities in the area. The refinery's original proposed site was in Ratnagiri district, 250 km from Mumbai. A second option that was considered was Raigad district, around 100 km from Mumbai. As per the new plan, the 1.2 million-b/d refinery is set to start in 2025.

** Vitol's refinery in southern Malaysia's Johor state is not expected to be online before the end of Q2 2022, the company said Jan. 21. The refinery, whose construction started in 2019, was likely to be operational in Q4 2021, but there have been some minor delays.

** Mongolia is aiming to complete the construction of its maiden refinery project in 2025. Engineering work at the refinery in Dornogovi in the southeast of the country has been completed despite the disruptions caused by the pandemic. When the feasibility study was approved in December 2018, completion was expected for 2024, the statement said. It will have a 1.5 million mt/year capacity, with 66% of the output diesel and the rest 95 RON gasoline, LPG and jet fuel. The plant will cover 80% of the domestic demand for diesel and gasoline. Construction started in 2018.

** Flow Petroleum Ltd, a Pakistan-based oil marketing company, has signed an agreement with Al Ghurair Investments, a large investment group in the UAE, for 100% ownership of a 120,000 b/d refinery named Trans Asia Refinery. It will be set up on 200 acres of land leased from Port Qasim Authority, Karachi, Pakistan.

** Pak-Arab Oil Refinery Limited will start physical works on its coastal refinery in 2021, after almost 13 years of delays. The refinery is expected to come online in 2025-26.

** Indonesia's Pertamina decided to postpone the construction of a proposed 300,000 b/d Bontang refinery in East Kalimantan.

** A Rosneft and Pertamina joint venture has signed a contract with Spanish Tecnicas Reunidas to design the construction of an oil refinery and petrochemical complex in Tuban, Indonesia. Primary processing design capacity is planned at up to 15 million mt/year, planned capacity at the petrochemical complex includes more than 1 million mt/year for ethylene and 1.3 million mt/year for aromatic hydrocarbons.

** Sri Lanka has approved a $20 billion refinery project at the port town of Hambantota. The announcement follows the inauguration of a smaller refinery complex at the port, which has backing from the Oman Oil Company.

** Indian Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd.'s proposal to invest $4.05 billion in an integrated refinery and petrochemicals facility in Balasore, India, has been granted approval by the Odisha state government.

** Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are in talks to develop a 200,000-300,000 b/d refinery in Balochistan's Gwadar district for $10 billion.

** A new HPCL project in Barmer, India, is due for completion by March 2023.