Refining Company News

A floating facility off the Venezuelan coast has finished offloading crude stored in it for the past two years due to U.S. sanctions, paving the way for output to resume in an oilfield, an official of the facility's operator said on Thursday.Operations to remove crude from the Nabarima floating storage and offloading facility (FSO), anchored in the eastern Gulf of Paria near the maritime border with Trinidad and Tobago, started in December. The crude had been stored there since…

Greenpeace's flagship Rainbow Warrior blocked a tanker on Thursday from delivering crude oil from Norway to Sweden's Lysekil refinery in a protest against plans to expand it, the advocacy group said.The 850-tonne sailboat decorated in rainbow colors dropped anchor in a fjord near the installation owned by Sweden's largest refiner Preem to block passage for the Grena Knutsen carrying crude from Norway's Gullfaks oilfield."We will not let any crude oil to the refinery until Preem stops its plans to expand," said Greenpeace member Gustav Martner during a live feed from Rainbow Warrior as it lower

Refineries at Port Dickson on Peninsular Malaysia's west coast are unable to receive crude oil after a port facility that carries crude from the ships to the plants broke down.A system known as a single point mooring (SPM) unit, a loading buoy anchored offshore that allows tankers to offload their crude via pipeline to the refineries, has been out of service, the refinery operators said.The SPM connects to a refinery operated by Hengyuan Refining Company Bhd (HRC), a subsidiary of China's Shandong Hengyuan Petrochemical Co…

LUKOIL Marine Lubricants, subsidiary of Russian in oil exploration, production and refining company LUKOIL, has highlighted the advantages of using LUKOIL NAVIGO MCL Extra, a new 40 BN cylinder oil designed to prevent deposit build-up due to the extra detergency associated with ‘2020 fuels’. At a recent technical seminar, Stefan Claussen, Technical and Marketing Director of LUKOIL Marine, described how the company is introducing future lubrication solutions for very-low- (VLSFO…

Japan’s third-largest oil refining company, Cosmo Oil, , has started building stocks of very-low-sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) for supply to domestic marine fuel markets from next month (October 2019) ahead of the IMO 2020 mandate requiring ships globally to reduce their bunker fuel sulfur content to 0.5% from the current 3.5% from January 2020.Cosmo Oil is using VLSFO produced at its residue desulfurizer (RDS) unit at its Chiba refinery near Tokyo to build the stocks, Cosmo Oil’sPresident Shunichi Tanaka said on Sunday…

Bermuda-based crude oil tanker company announced that  it has entered into a three year time charter with a leading refining company for one of its 2012 built very large crude carriers (VLCC).The charter will commence after the vessel completes a scrubber retrofit in the fourth quarter of this year, said the New York-traded company.The time charter has a base rate of $30,000 per day with all earnings up to $37,500 to DHT following a profit sharing structure that includes scrubber economics for earnings in excess to be shared between the customer and DHT.DHT fleet trades internationally and consists of crude oil tankers in the VLCC segment. It operates through its integrated management companies in Monaco, Singapore and Oslo, Norway.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec ), China's first large-scale production of greener low-sulfur marine fuel oil (LSFO), announced the production capability of 10 million and 15 million tons of low-sulfur marine fuel oil in 2020 and 2023.The Beijing-based Chinese oil and gas enterprise said in a press release that by January 1, 2020, Zhoushan and other China major ports will be fully covered with Sinopec product availability, and more than 50 key overseas ports, including Singapore, will be covered with Sinopec supply ability.The commitment will contribute 600,000 tons of sulfur oxide emissions reduction, equivalent to shutting…

South Korean shipyard Hyundai Heavy Industries sells its share of oil refinery Hyundai Oilbank to Saudi Arabian oil giant Saudi Aramco.According to a press release, Saudi Aramco’s subsidiary,  Aramco Overseas Company B.V (AOC) will purchase a 17% stake in South Korea's Hyundai Oilbank, a subsidiary of Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings.The investment is valued at approximately $ 1.25 billion, it said.AOC’s’s investment in South Korea’s Hyundai Oilbank will support Saudi Aramco’s crude oil placement strategy by providing a dedicated outlet for Arabian crude oil to South Korea.Abdulaziz Al-Judaimi, Saudi Aramco’s Senior Vice President of Downstream, said: “Saudi Aramco continues to strengthen its position in the downstream sector.

Hyundai Heavy said it plans to start to build the tanks in May and is set to deliver the tanks to Nigeria's Dangote Oil Refining Company, Africa's largest refinery, beginning in April 2019. The 15 cylindrical tanks - each being eight meters in diameter and 95 meters in length - can hold 75,000 cubic meters of LPG, according to Hyundai Heavy. The 15 gas cylinders w ill be installed at Dangote Oil Reining’s refining and petrochemical plant near Lagos in southwestern Nigeria. The Korean company manufactures and sells ships, offshore structures, plants, engines, and other products in South Korea and internationally.

Iran oil minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh said that the agreement signed with the Norwegian IFLNG company has already been annulled. A report in the Trend said that the  deal with Norwegian Hemla was  cancelled following the criticism by some Iranian MPs. The report quoted Iran’s oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh saying that the deal is cancelled following the some criticism regarding the contract terms. In October 2017, Iran signed a contract with Norwegian oil and gas company to build the country’s first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) unit in the Persian Gulf. The managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company Ali Kardor then said that the FLNG facility is a seaborne structure that would produce…

Dominican Republic closed most of its ports ahead of Hurricane Maria, but the country's 34,000-barrel-per-day refinery was still running, the government said on Wednesday. Ports that suspended operations under the "red alert" declared for extreme weather conditions are La Romana, Samana, Arroyo Barril, Puerto Plata and Manzanillo, the Dominican Port Authority said in a statement. Maria was a Category 4 hurricane when it hit Puerto Rico earlier on Wednesday. The ports of San Souci and Haina…

Oil company Royal Dutch Shell has signed a three-year contract to lease storage tanks at a large terminal in Panama that had been used by U.S. refining company Tesoro Corp, sources involved in the deal told Reuters. The facility, designed for storage and transshipment of crude oil to tankers, is owned by Petroterminal de Panama (PTP) and includes up to 14 million barrels of storage capacity on the Atlantic and the Pacific shores. "We have signed a contract with Shell for a three-year period involving all the available space we have," said an official from the Panamanian government. The contract still needs final approval by the country's Finance Ministry.   (Reporting by Elida Moreno and Marianna Parraga)

Crude oil tanker owner and operator DHT Holdings, Inc. said it has entered into agreement to sell the 1999-built very large crude carrier (VLCC) DHT Phoenix for $19.1 million.   The 18-year-old tanker has just completed a “highly profitable” one year time charter at $45,000 per day to an Asian refining company, DHT said.   DHT did not identify the new owner in its press release announcing the sale, but said the tanker will be delivered during the second quarter and is expected to retire from the trading fleet.   The DHT Phoenix is debt free, and the entire net proceeds will be added to the company's cash balance. The company said it will record a book loss of about $3.5 million in the first quarter 2017 in connection with the sale.

India is scouting for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) contracts globally as part of a push to secure cheap supplies for its under-utilized gas-fired power plants, reports Bloomberg. Australia, Qatar and Iran could all act as potential suppliers of long-term LNG contracts, power minister Piyush Goyal said in Sydney. The global search for LNG comes as India’s gas-fired plants, which can generate nearly 25 gigawatts of power, run at less than a quarter of their capacity because of a shortage of the fuel at affordable prices. “I think gas needs to be between $5 and $5.50 landed at my power plant. That is what I’m looking for in the medium- to long-term,” Goyal said. In fact, a boom in LNG demand and projects is taking shape in India.

I have never been in a hurricane. That’s a fact. Actually, my wife likes to say that whenever there is any kind of natural disaster, I’m typically nowhere to be found. And, when I think about it, I realize that she is right. Whether by accident or by design, that’s exactly how it has played out during the 30+ years that we have been together. Whenever this touchy subject does come up – typically once a quarter – she usually points to one particular event as proof of concept. In August of 1983, long before Katrina left her indelible mark on the U.S. Gulf Coast and the city of New Orleans in particular, there was Alicia. On August 18 of that year…

Sales to the United States of new Venezuelan crude blends made with imported oil nearly doubled in January to 176,000 barrels per day (bpd), but the rise was not enough to offset a decline in total oil shipments, according to Reuters trade data. Venezuela's state-run company PDVSA started buying Algerian light crude in October from Sonatrach to use it as diluent for its own extra heavy oil output. China and the United States have been receiving cargoes of the new blends since then, but disagreements over terms of the Algerian oil sales have caused PDVSA to halt the purchases, according to industry sources. PDVSA and its joint venture partners sent 736,000 bpd of crude to the United States last month, down 10.5 percent from December.

Costa Rica's refining company Recope has launched a tender to buy two 90,000-100,000 barrel cargos of fuel oil for delivery from September to December at Port Caldera, according to a document seen by Reuters on Friday. Previously this month, Recope bought three 25,000 barrel cargoes of MTBE, a component to oxygenate gasoline. The company, which operates the 25,000 barrel per day (bpd) Puerto Limon refinery, supplies most fuel for the Costa Rican domestic market. For this offer, the company is requesting fuel oil with maximum 1.8 percent sulfur. It will accept bids until August 25 and they must refer to fuel oil number 6 prices from the U.S. Gulf Coast. (Reporting by Marianna Parraga; Editing by Anna Driver)

Jamaica's refining company Petrojam has launched tenders to buy two 140,000-205,000 barrel cargoes combining gasoline, jet fuel and high-sulfur diesel and a 150,000 barrel cargo of fuel oil, all of them to be received on August 20-29 at Kingston, according to documents seen by Reuters on Monday. Petrojam produces most of fuels demanded by Jamaica's domestic market at its 35,000 barrel per day Kingston refinery shared with Venezuela's state-run PDVSA, but it also buys finished products and feedstock on the open market. The first cargo should arrive on August 20-22 containing 50,000 barrels of 84-octane gasoline, 50,000 barrels of 88-octane gasoline and 40,000 barrels of jet fuel.

d’Amico International Shipping S.A. (DIS) an international marine transportation company operating in the product tanker market, inform of the launch of two additional MR “ECO” vessels built at Hyundai Vinashin Shipyard Co., Ltd. (Vietnam). The first vessel, the 50,000 dwt High Sun was launched and delivered  to Eco Tankers Ltd. (Malta), a JV with Venice Shipping and Logistics S.p.A., in which DIS has 33% interest. The second vessel, the 50,000 dwt High Fidelity was also launched and is expected to be delivered to d’Amico Tankers Limited (Ireland) in Q3 2014. DIS say that both vessels are already fixed in time charter to a leading Oil Refining Company for a period of respectively three and two years at very profitable levels.

Venezuela's state-run PDVSA will use a terminal owned by U.S. firm NuStar Energy on the island of Saint Eustatius to store crude and load very large crude carriers (VLCCs) going to Asia, after deciding it will no longer rent a facility in the Bahamas, according to a PDVSA executive. PDVSA has been using the Saint Eustatius terminal in the Caribbean since March as a center to store and mix its crudes and produce exportable blends, the Venezuelan oil company confirmed after Reuters reported it this week. The company already started receiving crude tankers at the facility going out from Venezuelan ports. "We plan to build a new terminal…

Venezuela's state-run PDVSA will use a terminal owned by U.S. firm NuStar Energy on the island of Saint Eustatius to store crude and load very large crude carriers (VLCCs) going to Asia, after deciding it will no longer rent a facility in the Bahamas, a PDVSA executive said on Friday. PDVSA has been using the Saint Eustatius terminal in the Caribbean since March as a center to store and mix its crudes and produce exportable blends, the Venezuelan oil company confirmed after Reuters reported it this week. The company already started receiving crude tankers at the facility going out from Venezuelan ports. "We plan to build a new terminal…

Continental Refining Company Now Processing Low Sulfur Marine Diesel T90-700 and Completes Upgrades to Receive Transmix for Finished 500ppm LM Diesel Fuel Production; CRC Expands with Two New Niche Market Product Offerings that Serve Marine Users and Help to Prevent Bottlenecks in the U.S. Today Continental Refining Company, LLC announced a new product offering for the marine market with the production of low sulfur marine diesel, a special blend distillate fuel that has a T-90 greater than700° f…

(Reuters) - Costa Rica's refining company Recope launched a tender to buy three 165,000 cargos of fuel oil to be received from mid-April to October at Port Moin, according to an invitation seen by Reuters on Monday. The state-run company has increased imports of fuels since 2013, while planning the upgrade of its 25,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in Moin, next to Port Limon in the Caribbean. In recent months, it awarded a contract to U.S. Valero Energy to import up to 14.25 million barrels of fuels during 2014 and it also bought on the open market 1.53 million barrels of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) and several cargos of MTBE, a component to oxygenate gasoline. The cargos being sought this time must contain fuel oil with 2.2 percent or 3 percent sulfur, the company said.