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REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: More European plants stop buying Russian crude

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Oil companies and refiners in Europe are increasingly moving away from purchases of Russian crude following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

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Norway's state-controlled Equinor is to stop trading or transporting Russian oil, it said late March 14, following a decision to exit its Russian joint ventures in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Shell was one of the first energy companies to cease all spot purchases of Russian oil and products. BP, Italy's Eni and Saras, Spain's Repsol and Cepsa, Portugal's Galp, Finland's Neste, Sweden's Preem, and Poland's PKN have also suspended all new purchases of oil and oil products from Russia.

TotalEnergies pledged to end all purchases of Russian oil by year-end and Austria's OMV said it had stopped acquiring Russian crude for its three refineries. ExxonMobil's French refiners are looking for alternative sources and Varo Energy has "not entered into any new Russian crude purchases since the beginning of the conflict." Gunvor's Ingolstadt refinery in Germany is also not processing any Russian crude.

Meanwhile, PKN Orlen, Poland's largest oil refiner, said March 14 it had purchased a spot cargo of 130,000 mt of Norwegian crude as part of moves to diversify away from Russian supplies. The tanker was unloaded at the Naftoport crude terminal near Gdansk, the company said. PKN currently sources about 50% of its feedstock for its main Polish refinery in Plock from Russia, the company said, down from 98% in 2013. Separately, PKN CEO Daniel Obajtek said during a news conference that the company was ready to suspend imports at any moment should an embargo be introduced against buying Russian crude.

Lithuania's Orlen Lietuva refiner will move completely away from processing Russian crude and plans to process only oil from Saudi Arabia, according to local media reports citing Lithuanian officials. Russian crude has represented around two-thirds of the refinery's slate in recent years after it started diversifying its crude sources from 2014, according to reports citing a refinery official.

Italy's Saras said the Russian-Ukraine conflict was making it increasingly important to diversify oil and energy supply, but added that its location in the Mediterranean allowed it to guarantee supplies as well as the production of electricity required for its operations. Refinery runs at its Sarroch plant in Sardinia increased to 25.8 million-26.3 million barrels (3.4 million-3.6 million mt) in the fourth quarter of last year, compared with 22.2 million barrels (2.9 million mt) in the equivalent period in 2020, according to the company's financial results presentation. Saras also posted an increase in refinery runs for the full year 2021, rising to 95 million-95.5 million barrels (12.9-13.1 million mt), according to preliminary data, up from 83 million barrels in 2020. The recovery in refinery margins, particularly diesel ones, only took hold in the second half of the year, with the first half still weighed down by the effects of the pandemic, the company said.

Spanish energy company Cepsa increased throughput by 5% year on year at its refineries in 2021, to 20.3 million mt, or 408,000 b/d, it said March 16. The refining rate was 81% for the full year, up from a 78% in the pandemic-hit 2020, Cepsa said. The refining rate increased to as high as 88% in the third quarter, ending the year with a 87% rate in the fourth quarter.

Polish refiner Grupa Lotos increased throughput in the fourth quarter of 2021 by 4.2% year on year to 2.612 million mt as a rebounding economy saw higher demand for both diesel and gasoline, the company said March 23. Utilization of the Gdansk refinery was at maximum capacity. Demand for diesel and gasoline in Poland in October-December rose by 6.8% and 9.8% year on year respectively due to easing COVID-19 restrictions, the company said in a Q4 results report.

Israel's Bazan reported 83% utilization at its Haifa refinery in 2021, up from 80% in 2020, when utilization was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In Q4 its utilization was 90%, up from 70% in the year-ago quarter. However its 2021 utilization was affected by a malfunction at its CCR facility. The CCR was halted in early May following a breakdown. The repairs took several weeks, it said. Had this outage not occurred and had feedstock supply via the EAPC pipeline not been discontinued for eight days in Q3, it would have had 85% utilization in 2021, it said. The refinery processed 9.178 million mt of feedstock over 2021, including crude and heavy vacuum diesel, compared with 8.705 million mt in 2020. In the fourth quarter alone, throughput was at 2.466 million mt, up from 2.065 million mt in Q4 2020.

ExxonMobil's French downstream subsidiary Esso SAF said March 24 that its Gravenchon refinery processed 10.2 million mt in 2021, operating at more than 80% utilization. The refinery represents 20% of France's refining capacity. Fos processed 5.1 million mt in 2021, operating at over 86% utilization in the second half of the year. The refinery represents 10% of France's refinery capacity. The company said its results improved on rising demand. In 2021, French demand for diesel rose 11%, for gasoline by 21% and for jet fuel by 9%, Esso said, citing CPDP data.

French road fuel deliveries totaled 3.749 billion liters in February, up 10.1% year on year, but down 1.8% compared with pre-pandemic February 2020 levels, according to industry group UFIP Energies et Mobilites March 16, citing data from the country's oil industry committee CPDP. Diesel deliveries in February were up 6.8% on the year, while gasoline consumption jumped 21.9%. However, compared with February 2020, diesel consumption was down 4.4%, while gasoline consumption increased 7.5%.

Separately, the FCC unit at Sonatrach's Augusta refinery located in the Southern Italian island of Sicily was operating normally March 15, according to a source close to the refinery. The FCC unit suffered a technical issue on March 14 afternoon between 5 pm and 6 pm local time, causing workers at the plant to restart its compressor, according to the source.

Germany's Schwedt refinery had restarted its FCC unit following a glitch March 11, according to traders. However the unit was not running at full capacity. In other news, Germany's economy ministry has launched an investigation into Russia's Rosneft expanding its ownership of the PCK Schwedt refinery in the wake of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine last month, the ministry has confirmed. Rosneft announced last November that it had exercised a preemption right for a 37.5% share of the Schwedt refinery being sold by Shell, in a move set to increase its shareholding in the plant from 54.17% to 91.67%.

Meanwhile, France's Feyzin will be halting its petrochemical plant for maintenance, according to local media reports. The refinery will continue normal operations. Maintenance will start March 23 and will last for around nine weeks. A restart is expected in late May.

Part of a unit at ExxonMobil's Rotterdam refinery was halted following a brief fire March 18, according to local reports. The fire occurred at a transformer and was extinguished shortly. Part of an aromatics unit was shut down.

No major maintenance was planned for Romania's Petrobrazi refinery in 2022, the company said March 17.

Refinery Capacity Country Owner Unit Duration Sannazzaro 190,000 Italy Eni EST 2020 ISAB 321,000 Italy Lukoil Part Mar Rijeka 90,000 Croatia INA full Nov Izmir 220,000 Turkey Tupras part 2022 Izmit 227,000 Turkey Tupras part 2022 Batman 28,000 Turkey Tupras part 2022 Donges 220,000 France TotalEnergies full Back Falconara 85,000 Italy API full Back Pernis 404,000 Netherlands Shell part Jan Lietuva 204,000 Lithuania PKN full May Elefsis 100,000 Greece Hellenic full Feb Thessaloniki 95,000 Greece Hellenic full H2'22 Gdansk 210,000 Poland Lotos full 2022 Sarpom 180,000 Italy Joint full 2021 Ingolstadt 110,000 Germany Gunvor part 2022/2023 Haifa 197,000 Israel Bazan part 2022 Burghausen 76,000 Germany OMV full Q3,2022 Antwerp 338,000 Belgium TotalEnergies part Apr Gravenchon 240,000 France ExxonMobil part Mar Bilbao 220,000 Spain Repsol part Mar Tarragona 186,000 Spain Repsol part 2022 Duna 165,000 Hungary MOL part H1'22 Bratislava 122,000 Slovakia Slovnaft part H1'22 Coruna 120,000 Spain Repsol part Mar Petromidia 120,000 Romania Rompetrol full Mar Fredericia 70,000 Denmark Postlane Partners part Mar Mongstad 190,000 Norway Equinor full Q2 Antwerp 320,000 Belgium ExxonMobil part Mar

Holborn 105,000 Germany Oilinvest full 2023 Litvinov 108,000 Czech Unipetrol full 2024

** The ISAB refinery in Sicily is currently running a series of maintenance and upgrade works on pumps, compressors, pipelines, jetties, desulfurization and conversion units, both at its north and south refinery plants. The maintenance had started earlier in March.

** Norway's Mongstad will undergo planned maintenance in Q2, the company said. The works will start April 23 and last around six weeks. The refinery had previously postponed works that were planned for 2020.

** API's refinery in the Italian coastal town of Falconara Marittima, which suffered a fire at its thermal cracking unit in February, has been restarted and was operating normally along with the entire refinery, a source close to the refinery said March 17. The refinery has been operating as usual since the Feb. 24 fire, barring the thermal cracking unit which had been placed offline for examination and damage testing prior to being restarted earlier this week.

** Romania's Petromidia will suspend operations for a planned technological turnaround between March 11-April 3. The company will also suspend operations at its Vega facility, "which operates with finished and semi-finished materials from Petromidia." The technological shutdown "is a necessity for the good functioning of the refinery units," Rompetrol said, adding that a general turnaround is carried out every four years and technological shutdown every two years. Meanwhile, crude oil deliveries to Romania's Petromidia refinery are not expected to be impacted by the outage of the CPC terminal on the Black Sea, Rompetrol said March 24. Petromidia has "benefited from major investments in modernizing and streamlining production processes" and has the "ability and flexibility to process different types of crude oil." The share of CPC crude is "low compared to other types of crude oil currently in use," the company said. The refinery has crude stocks which will "ensure the operation of the refinery for a period of time, depending on the level of utilization."

** ExxonMobil's Antwerp refinery is currently carrying out maintenance works, according to market sources. The works, whose extent has not been confirmed, are likely to last until the end of March.

** ExxonMobil's French downstream subsidiary Esso SAF said March 24 that its Fos-sur-Mer refinery in southern France is currently operating at full capacity in order to supply the French market, while works at the Gravenchon plant near Le Havre are expected to be completed in "a few weeks." Gravenchon has been undergoing partial maintenance since Feb. 23. Gravenchon has maintenance planned, of the type that is carried out every six to seven years and involves the main parts of the refinery, such as the alkylation unit, FCC and a gofiner, Esso said.

** Spain's Bilbao refinery was halting its G2 diesel desulfurization unit in plant 2, it said March 24. The refinery started a general turnaround on Feb. 15 that impacted several units, including the larger crude distillation unit 2, VDU and coker. The refinery will be running at 50% capacity for the turnaround that will last until April 5. During the halt, work will be carried out on the coker as well as other units in the conversion area of the refinery. The refinery halted its AK3 alkylation unit Feb. 17 and its vacuum unit V3 Feb. 18. It halted on March 3 the P2 platforming unit and N1 naphtha desulfurization unit. On March 1 it halted the G4 diesel desulfurization unit, H3 hydrogen production unit and cogeneration CG6 units. The larger crude distillation unit 2, VDU and coker were taken off Feb. 15.

** France's Donges refinery commenced its restart March 16, the refinery said. The restart will last around two weeks. During the maintenance, which started in late November, Donges has also been building a new desulfurization unit. TotalEnergies halted operations at Donges on Nov. 30, 2020 due to weak margins. Meanwhile, a new railway to bypass the Donges plant, meaning other rail traffic will not have to pass through the site, is set to start operations in October. Work on the railway, which has been a condition for modernizing the refinery, started in 2020. The French government, local authorities, railway operator SNCF and TotalEnergies signed a memorandum of intent in 2016 to build the railway bypassing the refinery. TotalEnergies has said previously that, following the bypass agreement, it would proceed with the planned upgrade. The bypass was due to be ready in 2022.

** Germany's Heide has completed planned works, the refinery said March 28. "The work on the affected production facilities was completed on schedule. The restarting process of the production facilities has been finished," it said. It had previously said it was planning partial works from Feb. 28 to March 25. Only some units were affected.

** Italy's Eni is considering converting its Livorno refinery into a biorefinery that will produce hydrogenated biofuel, according to local media reports. Livorno can also produce biojet as well as lubricants. The plan has been discussed at a meeting with the authorities and labor unions organized by the ministry of economic development. The company however has asked for the sector to be supported by the government and a further discussion will follow.. Last year, the company unveiled plans to stop refining crude and suspend all related activities at the Livorno refinery by end 2022, according to information provided by labor unions.

** Spain's A Coruna has started planned work on four conversion units, Repsol said March 11. The company will invest Eur10 million in the work, which started March 10 and is expected to last 33 days. During the work, Repsol will carry out work on the hydrotreatment unit that will boost biofuel output. The work will allow it to process vegetable oils alongside used cooking oil to produce 5,500 mt/year in 2022, with the volume rising to 10,500 mt/year by 2024. The remainder of the work, which will generally target sulfur reduction units, will aid the overall transformation of the refinery to produce more biofuels and other low-carbon fuels.

** Croatia's Rijeka refinery continues with its maintenance, according to market sources. The company declined to comment. It had said previously that the refinery started a planned temporary shutdown for a catalyst replacement at the end of October 2021. The maintenance was to also be used for works on other units. According to media reports, the maintenance also involves modification of the hydrodesulfurization reactor at the hydrocracker.

** Denmark's Crossbridge Energy Fredericia refinery started planned maintenance on some of its units Feb. 26. The refinery will run at reduced capacity during the shutdown. The refinery was renamed to Crossbridge Energy Fredericia after its acquisition by US-based Postlane Partners from Shell in January 2021.

** Poland's second largest refiner Grupa Lotos said that it will start the shutdown of refinery units for maintenance at its Gdansk refinery on March 9. The partial turnaround will shut down 50 of the refinery's 65 installations and is expected to last until April 16. The bulk of the maintenance will be carried out in March and individual units will be restarted in early April. The last stage of the project will involve the renovation of the hydrogen generation unit between April 17 and May 14. This is the second part of the planned overhaul, with the first stage taking place between February and May last year. Lotos said it estimates that "the maximum throughput reduction attributable directly to the shutdown will be approximately 7% on an annual basis" but that it is implementing "operational measures" to minimize this.

** A planned maintenance on the FCC unit at Israel's Haifa is underway. The works "began as planned and as previously announced during the first quarter of 2022," the company said, adding that they are due to finish by the end of Q1. Bazan has previously said that it has delayed scheduled maintenance of the FCC at Haifa from Q2 2021 to the first half of 2022 when there would be also maintenance at all the Carmel Olefin facilities. The company would carry out maintenance of the FCC alongside maintenance at all the Carmel Olefin facilities in the first quarter of 2022.

** TotalEnergies' Antwerp refinery is due to carry out maintenance this spring, according to traders. The works will most likely take place in April.

** Turkey's Tupras reported an extensive maintenance schedule for 2022. For its Izmit refinery, periodic maintenance of the isomerization unit lasting five weeks was reported to be ongoing. Periodic maintenance of the vacuum and desulfurizer units were reported as planned for Q1, each lasting three weeks, with periodic maintenance of the crude oil and vacuum unit and the HYC unit both planned for the end of Q3 and both lasting six weeks. For its Izmir refinery, periodic maintenance of the vacuum unit and lubes complex were reported as ongoing during Q1, both lasting six weeks. The company said that in Q4 at Izmir it plans to revamp the crude unit, CCR & isomerization unit and desulfurizer -- all lasting nine weeks -- and the HYC unit, expected to last four weeks.

Seasonal maintenance of the crude oil and vacuum unit at Tupras' Batman plant was reported as ongoing for 13 weeks during Q1 with further work on the same unit planned for four weeks in Q4.

** In the second half of 2022, Repsol will carry out a smaller turnaround at its Tarragona refinery, which will involve the isomax and hydrocracker units.

** Greece's Hellenic Petroleum plans full turnaround at its Elefsina refinery in the first half of 2022. The maintenance at Elefsina was brought forward by an incident at the end of January, when the whole refinery was halted and the maintenance started, Hellenic said. The works will last until the end of March for half of the refinery and the flexicoker will start a few weeks later. Traders had reported that the incident occurred at the coker.

** Greece's Hellenic Petroleum plans full turnaround at Thessaloniki in the second half of the year. The maintenance at Thessaloniki will last between six and eight weeks.

** MOL will schedule the bulk of its 2022 maintenance activities in the first half of the year, including works at MOL Petrochemicals, as well as at the distillation and conversion units of its Danube and Slovnaft refineries.

** OMV plans a general maintenance at the Burghausen refinery between June 22-Aug. 7. It has previously said the turnaround would be in Q3. The turnaround will include also the Borealis polyolefin production site. The last turnaround took place in 2014, followed by a partial shutdown of the refinery in May 2018. "In order to continue to ensure safe, environmentally friendly operation and the efficiency of the plants, all plants will be shut down during the turnaround, cleaned and inspected," the company said. In addition, expansion work will be carried out to increase ethylene and propylene production. The turnaround will be used to expand and modernize the steam cracker and subsequently increase the capacities for ethylene and propylene production, S&P Global Platts has reported previously. The expansion is expected to facilitate increased annual ethylene and propylene production by around 50,000 mt/year.

** Shell plans to end crude processing at the Wesseling site within the Rhineland refining complex in 2025 as the facilities are repurposed for non-fossil fuel feedstocks and renewable hydrogen production. Shell outlined plans for the facility to take a variety of new biogenic and waste feedstocks, underlining that no final investment decision had yet been taken, and crude processing would still take place at the adjoining Godorf site. The Wesseling portion of the Rhineland refinery accounts for half the overall refining capacity, or 8 million mt/year.

** OMV said that a turnaround is planned at Schwechat in Q2.

** Lithuania's Orlen Lietuva plans to suspend operations for a major maintenance in May. The works will last from May 22 to June 14.

** Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam -- formerly known as the Pernis refinery -- which will undergo major maintenance between end January-end June, will ensure continuity of the plant's operations during the works so that while one installation is shut down, another will continue production, the company said.

Therefore no total shutdown will be involved, and the refinery will stock "enough product to ensure continuity of supply for the time an installation is down for maintenance." The maintenance aims to further improve the safety, reliability and efficiency of the refinery's installations as well as to carry out "legally required inspections and repairs," the refinery also said.

** Italy's Sannazzaro de Burgondi refinery, which was taken partially offline for large-scale maintenance works in July 2021, will remain offline for the whole of next year, a source close to the refinery told S&P Global Platts. Sources said maintenance was being carried out on the plant's slurry technology (EST) unit, which was taken offline following a fire in 2016, as well as on the refinery's hydrocracking unit, the visbreaking plant and the gas depuration unit, among others.

Eni's EST plant had originally been scheduled to restart last year but was kept offline amid the nationwide slump in demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

** Gunvor Group said that its Ingolstadt refinery in Germany will undertake projects focused on heating systems and exchangers "to continue improving its energy efficiency and reduce its emissions." A planned turnaround in 2023 will allow additional reductions, by carrying out projects on the FCC.

** Czech Unipetrol said that following the turnaround at its Litvinov plant in Q2'20 the refinery has prepared production for a new four-year cycle. Thus, the next turnaround is due in 2024.

** Two months of maintenance at the Sarpom refinery in Trecate, Italy, originally scheduled for October 2019 have been pushed back. Details on which units at the refinery will be upgraded as part of the maintenance -- of the kind needed every 3-4 years -- had yet to emerge.

** The Holborn refinery near Hamburg, northern Germany, plans its next turnaround in 2023. Its previous maintenance was in the autumn of 2018. The refinery carries out major works every five years.

** Total's Feyzin is considering mothballing a visbreaker unit as demand for heavy fuel is gradually declining and the unit works on average no more than three days a month.

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