London — Russian refineries reduced throughput in April and May, as coronavirus-related travel restrictions curbed demand for motor fuel during the seasonal maintenance period.
However, demand is gradually picking up as the country eases lockdown measures and output increases as spring turnarounds are gradually drawing to a close.
Meanwhile, as a measure to offset the impact of lower demand on its refineries, Russia issued a temporary ban on imports of oil products, including gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, until October 1. In recent months, Russia has imported record volumes of cheaper gasoline from Belarus, as Russian companies are reluctant to reduce gasoline prices due to the current tax mechanism in Russia, under which companies must compensate the state for low oil prices.
Russia also reduced required volumes of oil products sales via exchanges by half between April 1 and June 30. Companies are now required to sell 5% of gasoline, 3% of diesel, 5% of jet fuel, 1% of fuel oil and 2.5% of LPG produced on exchanges.
Separately, Kazakhstan's refineries are operating at minimum rates in order to avoid significant stockpiling, according to Kazinform, citing deputy minister of energy Aset Magauov.
In other news, the first ever shipment of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil from the US has arrived in Ukraine's Odessa Black Sea port, the Odessa Seaport reported. The UMLMA oil tanker delivered 76,430 mt of WTI crude, which will be sent for refining to the Kremenchuk-based oil refinery UkrTatNafta, the largest refinery in Ukraine, via Odessa-Kremenchuk oil pipeline. The tanker was loaded at Port Nederland in Texas.
Near-term maintenance
New and revised entries
**Belarus refineries are currently operating at stable capacity, the country's Belta news agency reported, citing owner Belneftekhim. It previously reported that Mozyr will reduce its May throughput to 0.5 million mt on planned maintenance, although Belarus's second refinery, Naftan, will continue normal processing. The two refineries supply the domestic market and secure export volumes and are not impacted by the temporary ban on imports into Russia. As a measure to offset the impact of lower demand on its refineries, Russia issued a temporary ban on imports of oil products, including gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, until October 1. In recent months, Russia has imported record volumes of cheaper gasoline from Belarus, for the first time since 2018.
**A fire, now extinguished, on May 24 at the Novokuybishev refinery in Russia's Samara region led to an insignificant volume of oil products burning at decommissioned auxiliary equipment, according to news reports. Rosneft and the Samara Emergencies Ministry were not available to comment. The Novokuybishev facility carried out works on primary processing over April and May.
**Russia's Omsk refinery has completed its planned cycle of spring maintenance. Work was completed on the primary processing unit, the hydrotreater and the hydrogen and nitrogen units, a company representative said May 28. Work undertaken to replace catalysts and maintain and increase production efficiency, the representative said.
**Russia's Khabarovsk refinery in the Far East is back to normal capacity after planned maintenance, the company said. It carried out works in April and May.
**Russia's Nizhny Novgorod (Norsi) refinery is gradually restarting from maintenance, albeit with a slight delay, according to sources. The refinery, which was due to carry out works between March and May, is now coming back from works, a source close to the refinery said. Lukoil wasn't immediately available for comment on the matter. Separately, the company said in its Q1 report that some secondary units at Norsi underwent works in Q1, which it attributed to a slight drop of throughput at its Russian refineries.
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**Ukraine's second-largest producer of gasoline and diesel fuel, Shebelinka GPP, which operates under Shebel brand name, shut down for a 16-day maintenance period starting May 22, natural gas producer UkrGazVydobuvannia (UGV), which owns the refinery, said. The maintenance is expected to be completed on June 7. During the maintenance, the refinery plans to upgrade some of its equipment, including pipelines and valves, as well as to clean columns and heat exchangers. Shebelinka originally planned to stop for the maintenance in the fall, but subsequently decided to reschedule the shutdown for May amid weak demand for gasoline and diesel fuel due to coronavirus lockdowns. "The reschedule of maintenance from autumn to the end of May is associated with a decrease in consumption of petroleum products in the second quarter of 2020, which was caused by quarantine restrictions," Serhiy Fedorenko, commercial director of UkrGazVydobuvannia, said in a statement.
**Russia's Perm is planning works in H2 2020, according to tender documents. Works will include catcracker and hydrocracker. The refinery is also carrying out partial works in May-June. In late April the refinery said there was a minor fire while preparing a unit for maintenance.
**The Kuybishev refinery in the Samara refinery hub is halting for full maintenance.
**Russia's Komsomolsk refinery in the Far East will halt some units between May and June.
**Russia's Ukhta refinery will carry out full works in May and June. Lukoil had issued several tenders for cleaning the visbreaker and AVT (CDU-VDU) and AT-1 (CDU) primary processing units at Ukhta refinery.
**Russian Astrakhan, which predominantly processes gas condensate and produces only light products, is expected to undergo full maintenance from May 10, according to trading sources. The works are due to last 45 days.
**Russia's Orsk refinery plans works on 11 units in 2020, the refinery said. According to trading sources, works are starting in April. Its 2019 refinery maintenance schedule included works on seven units and was completed in November. The units that underwent maintenance included CDU VDU ELOU-AVT-3, a visbreaker, isomerization, bitumen unit, as well as reformer, and diesel hydrotreater.
**Maintenance at Russia's Volgograd will be carried out in autumn, sources said.
**Russia's Moscow refinery is set to carry out partial works, starting from end-March, according to trading sources.
**Maintenance at Russia's Yaroslavl refinery is planned for April-May, the refinery said in a statement.
**Russia's Ryazan refinery is expected to carry out works in April and May on primary processing and reformer units.
**Refineries from the Ufa refining hub have works spread over the spring and summer months. Ufaneftekhim is undergoing works on primary processing, diesel hydrotreater, reformer between March and June. The Ufa refinery will carry out works on gasoline and diesel units in March and April, whereas Novoil is set to carry out works on diesel hydrotreater from mid March to mid April.
**Kazakhstan's Pavlodar next maintenance will be carried out this year.
Upgrades
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**Gazprom Neft said it has completed the installation of the upgraded L 35/11-600 catalytic reformer at the Omsk refinery. Two new compressors have been installed and three have been upgraded. Work is due for completion in 2020. Separately Omsk has completed installation of its new delayed coker. The 2 million mt/year unit will help halt fuel oil output, increase coke production and the depth of processing to 97% and light products yield to 80%. It will produce 38,700 mt/year of needle coke, which is used in the production of electrodes for the steel and aluminum industries. It is part of the deep processing complex at its Omsk refinery. The new delayed coker unit and upgrades to its existing coker were set to be completed in 2021. In 2021, the refinery will complete the construction of a new diesel dewaxing and hydrotreating unit, with 2.5 million mt/yr capacity, which will replace two outdated units. Omsk has also completed the installation of the main equipment at the primary processing complex CDU-VDU. The complex, with 8.4 million mt/year capacity, will be completed in 2021, and allow the refinery to take six outdated units out of service. Separately, the refinery started a project for the upgrade of the AVT-10 primary processing complex with 8.6 million mt/year capacity. The project is due to be completed by the end of 2021.
**Russian oil company Tatneft has upgraded its gasoline production process to Euro 6 standards, the company said May 26. "Now all fuel coming out of the Taneco complex with meet the high international ecological standards of Euro 6," it said. The upgrades apply to 92 RON, 95 RON, 98 RON and 100 RON octane designations. The company said in April it had launched a sulfolane process, which would enable it to produce feedstock for high octane gasoline components. As a result, the refinery would be able to increase Euro 6 gasoline output by 30,000 mt/year, the company said at the time. The refinery also recently launched a heavy gasoil hydrotreater. It has previously said that in 2020 it also plans to start testing middle distillates hydrotreater, catalytic cracker, hydrogen production and residue hydroconversion. The heavy gasoil hydrotreater removes sulfur from the gasoil from the coking process. Its capacity is 850,000 mt/year and will help produce desulfurized gasoil which can be used as IMO-compliant bunker fuel. The refinery's capacity has been increased to 15.3 million mt/year after the launch of a new primary processing complex in 2019 and it plans to process 11.5 million mt in 2020. In 2019 it processed a total of 10.794 million mt.
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**Kazakhstan's Pavodar refinery is looking at building a unit for purification of LPG and has selected a Merox technology. The refinery, which is processing mostly Western Siberian crude, said that recently the mercaptan sulfur content has increased and as the existing units cannot remove the mercaptans this results in deteriorated LPG quality.
**Socar expects the coronavirus pandemic to force changes to its rebuilding and renovation program at the Heydar Aliyev refinery and the Azerkimya petrochemical plant, a company spokesman told Platts. The spokesman said that as yet no changes to the anticipated completion dates had been confirmed, but that given that the pandemic has caused procurement delays it can't be ruled out. The spokesman confirmed that the planned restarting after modernization at the Azerkimya ethylene and polyethylene plant in the middle of this year looked likely to be affected. The company could not rule out three to four months of delay, he said. Ongoing modernization of the Heydar Aliyev refinery is currently expected to see production of both Euro 5 diesel and Euro-5 standard A-92/95/98 gasoline start by the end of 2021 or early 2022. The ongoing work includes replacing all of the units of the refinery except one and in the process increasing the capacity to 7.5 million mt/year from 6 million mt/year.
**Belarus Mozyr refinery is preparing for the launch of its new H-Oil hydrocracker, according to the country's Belta news agency. The equipment for the main feedstock pumps has been installed. The complex includes hydrocracker, hydrogen and sulfur units. The completion of the hydrocracker H-Oil complex at Mozyr will cut fuel oil output and increase light products. The quality of the fuel oil output will improve to less than 1% sulfur. The complex, with feedstock capacity of 3 million mt/year, will increase the light products yield to 70% and the depth of processing to 90%. Belarus Naftan has started testing the new delayed coker, while construction works are ongoing. The coker is expected to be completed and fully launched this year.
**Uzbekneftegaz has decided to proceed with an upgrade of its Bukhara and Fergan refineries and put on hold building a new refinery in the Jizzakh region, it has said previously. Upgrade of Uzbekistan's Fergan refinery continues with a project for the construction of an isomerization unit which will enable the refinery to produce Euro 4 and 5 gasoline. Uzbekneftegaz along with Ernst&Young is realizing a project for increasing efficiency at its production assets including at the refineries at Bukhara and Chinaz. The project includes increasing utilization rates, reducing maintenance costs, increasing the period between turnarounds.
**Russia's Salavat will launch its new FCC in 2020, it said in an in-house magazine. The FCC will have feedstock capacity of 1.095 million/mt a year.
**The launch of four secondary units at the Mariisky refinery has been delayed, according to media reports. According to plans, after upgrades it expects to increase the AT-2's capacity to 1.4 million mt/year from 900,000 mt/year and the VDU capacity to 1 million mt/year from 476,000 mt/year.
**The modernization of Russia's Afipsky refinery has entered an active phase, the company said. It includes a hydrocracker, construction of which is under way. The complex, planned to process 2.5 million mt/year feedstock, is set for launch in the second half of 2022. In addition, the refinery plans to build a delayed coker.
**Russia's crude pipeline operator Transneft started sending Urals crude to the Ilsky refinery via the newly completed pipeline. It previously said shipments to Ilsky would start in 2019 and to the Afipsky refinery in 2020, both in Krasnodar region. The pipeline's capacity is 4.5 million mt/year and can potentially be expanded to 9 million mt/year. Deliveries to Afispky will start after completion of upgrades, scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2020. Of the pipeline's capacity, 3 million mt/year will be delivered to Afispky and 1.5 million mt to Ilsky. The trunk line can be connected to two main pipelines: Tikhoretsk-Novorossiisk-2 and -3 and thus can be connected to the Urals pipeline and to the pipeline delivering Siberian Light to Novorossiisk, increasing the flexibility of supplies.
**Russia's Orsk has started the second phase of modernization, a key of which will be a delayed coker complex. Its completion in 2023 will provide additional feedstock for the hydrocracker, which was brought online in 2018, as well as increasing the depth of processing to over 98% and the light products yield to 84%.
**The Yaisky refinery is working on a deep processing complex which will enable it to produce gasoline. The complex includes a gasoline hydrotreater, isomerization and CCR unit. It will produce over 700,000 mt/year Euro 5 gasoline.
**Ilsky refinery has five CDUs and is currently building another CDU, AT-6, with 3.6 million mt/year capacity, which will help increase its capacity to 6.6 million mt/year. It aims to launch the new unit in test mode around the end of 2020. Ilsky was planning a gasoline complex, including CCR unit, isomerization, gasoline hydrotreater, as well as distillate hydrotreater, hydrocracker and delayed coker.
**Russia's Rosneft reported progress of various upgrade projects. In Yaroslavl, owned by Rosneft and Gazprom Neft through Slavneft, a project has been approved for the construction of a deep processing complex. At the company's Achinsk refinery works are under way for reconstruction of the gas fractionation column of a crude distillation unit while at the Ufaneftekhim refinery continued the repairs of the hydrocracker following incidents. Russia's Bashneft, majority owned by Rosneft, has issued a tender for the reconstruction of the hydrocracker at Ufaneftekhim in late 2019. The unit has been damaged in a fire in July 2016.
**Russia's Moscow refinery will complete its modernization by 2023-24, when as part of the third phase it will halt the production of fuel oil and achieve 99% depth of processing. It aims to complete the second phase of modernization by 2021, launching the new Euro+ complex, the refinery's managing director Vitaliy Zuber said. It plans to complete the testing of the complex and take out of service the outdated units next year. Construction of the new complex, which includes hydro treating, catalytic cracking, a catalytic reformer and visbreaking units, started in 2016. It will enable the refinery to remove five outdated units from operation, built in the 1950s and 1960s. The Euro+ complex will increase the light products yield to 60% and will allow the refinery to double its jet fuel output.
**Russia's Novoshakhtinsky refinery, in Rostov region, is starting work on a new project aimed at production of Euro-5 gasoline, the regional governor said. Completion is aimed for 2027. The plant has a 5 million mt/year nameplate capacity and was launched in 2009.
**McDermott International said it was awarded an engineering, procurement and construction contract by Lukoil for the delayed coker at the Nizhny Novgorod refinery in Russia. The delayed coker, which will process 2.1 million mt/year of residues, will be part of a deep processing complex, including a delayed coker, a diesel hydrotreater, gas fractionation, hydrogen and sulfur units. The complex has been scheduled for a 2021 start-up.
**The next stage of upgrades at the Antipinsky refinery in Russia involves increasing the capacity of the crude and refined product pipelines. Antipinsky, which can process 9-9.5 million mt/year of crude, currently gets 7.5 million mt/year of crude.
**A delayed coker will be installed at the Turkmenbashi refining complex in Turkmenistan.
**Rosneft, Russia's largest crude producer, plans to complete its refinery modernization program by 2025. The program includes construction and reconstruction of over 50 units, with work on more than 30 of the units having been finished.
Launches
Existing entries
**A new refinery is planned to be launched in Georgia, at the Black Sea port of Kulevi, in 2024, according to media reports. Construction of the 4 million mt/year plant is due to start in 2021, according to Fazis Oil, the reports said. The refinery is expected to have 98% depth of processing and produce Euro 5 and 6 gasoline and diesel and thus reduce Georgia's import needs for oil products by 15-20%.
**Russia's Khabarovsk refinery plans to build a second phase to the plant close to the existing site, according to reports. The second phase would double the refinery's capacity to 10 million mt/year, and aims to cover gasoline demand in the far east of Russia. The company is seeking an investor in the Asia-Pacific region for the second phase of the plant, which includes an FCC, hydrotreater and a delayed coker.
