Italy's oil, gas infrastructure stays online as country goes into lockdown

Italy's key oil refining and gas supply infrastructure remained largely operational Tuesday despite the entire country being placed in lockdown in response to the expanding coronavirus outbreak.

Italy, Europe's number three gas consumer and fifth-biggest oil user, extended a lockdown over the northern Lombardy region and other areas to the entire nation Tuesday, effectively placing about 60 million people in voluntary quarantine. People are being urged to stay at home and all public gatherings and sporting events have been scrapped.

But most refinery plant operators said they are continuing normal operations with tighter health checks on their staff.

Activities at the API refinery in the central Italian coastal town of Falconara Marittima have been unaffected by the new coronavirus measures, a source close to the refinery told S&P Global on Tuesday.

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The plant is currently restarting after it went offline on January 25 for some approximately 40 days of upgrades to permit a 5-year extraordinary maintenance cycle to be carried out. It is currently on schedule to restart, which is "imminent," the source said.

Oil major Eni, the country's biggest refiner, said its refining operations were not affected by the decree and confirmed that planned maintenance at its 190,000 b/d Sannazzaro refinery in northern Italy will go ahead from mid-March.

"Since the beginning of the emergency, the company has promptly implemented all necessary measures to protect the health of its people," a spokeswoman for the company said. "Eni is constantly monitoring the evolution of the epidemic in order to continue to guarantee its employees all the appropriate measures for their maximum protection."

Eni sent home staff at its headquarters in Milan on February 26 as local coronavirus cases grew. At the time it said its two refineries in northern Italy, the Sannazzaro plant near Milan and a biorefinery near Venice, were unaffected.

Italy's seven conventional oil refineries were processing about 1.31 million b/d of crude before the outbreak in January, representing about a 75% utilization rate.

There were no market reports of changes or disruption to Italy's gas or LNG import behavior.

HEALTH PRECAUTIONS

Operations at Sarroch's refinery in Sardinia are currently unaffected by the recent government lockdown decree, a source close to the refinery told S&P Global Platts Tuesday.

Workers at the refinery have been ordered to adhere to a strict set of health and safety regulations aimed at reducing the possibility of any contagion should someone at the plant become infected by the virus, according to an internal document seen by Platts Tuesday.

Anyone with symptoms of influenza, including coughing, breathing difficulties and fever above 37.5 degrees Celsius "is absolutely banned" from attending the refinery premises, the document also said. The ban has also extended to anyone who cohabits or has been in contact with people that are in obligatory quarantine or self-isolation due to coronavirus infection.

Italy has the highest number of COVID-19 cases outside China with 9,172 confirmed infections and 463 fatalities from the disease. Spain and France and the second most affected European countries with about 1,600 cases each.

Health experts have warned that Italy's coronavirus peak may not arrive until mid-April.

British Airway and Ryanair, Europe's biggest budget airline, suspended all flights to Italy Tuesday.

Separately, sources close to Lukoil's 321,000 b/d ISAB refinery and Sonatrach's 160,00 b/d Augusta plant, both in Sicily, said operations have been unaffected by the lockdown so far. Maintenance work at Eni's 120,000 b/d Taranto refinery is also on track, a source close to the refinery said.