China Sinopec Qingdao Ref (&Coker) – Gets 1st Saudi oil shipment

[Charles RandallParticipant]

China Sinopec’s new plant to receive 1st Saudi oil
May 9, 2008 Reuters
Sinopec Group is the parent of New York and Hong Kong-listed Sinopec Corp , Asia’s largest refiner and China’s second-largest oil and gas producer. (Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Additional reporting by Maryelle Demongeot in Singapore, Editing by Ramthan Hussain) –
BEIJING, May 8, 2008 – Sinopec Group’s new 200,000 barrels per day refinery in eastern China will receive its first cargo of Saudi crude in mid-May as it prepares to come fully onstream by the end of the month, sources said on Thursday.
The 2 million barrels of Arab Medium and Arab Heavy crude will be the second imported cargo by the refinery in the port city of Qingdao, following a first cargo of Congolese crude that arrived in March, the sources said.
The Very Large Crude Carrier of Saudi crude will likely be the first of a series to head to Qingdao, as China has raised its imports of Saudi crude via term contracts by a third this year to a hefty 720,000 barrels per day , ahead of the startup of new refineries.
“I think we’ll take more. Our new Qingdao refinery is designed to process heavy and sour grades,” a Chinese trader said. Top refiner Sinopec , which is more dependent on imports than PetroChina , asked for a 30 percent increase in oil imports from Saudi Arabia for 2008, sources said last year.
Most Saudi crude, and in particular Arab Medium and Arab Heavy, is heavy and sour, which makes it cheaper than most grades but requires complex refineries to run them. With its crude throughput estimated at 5.5 million tonnes up to the end of 2008, the Qingdao complex facility is expected to take some 3.0 million tonnes, or roughly 22 million barrels, of Saudi crude by the end of this year, said the source.
Saudi crude will account for around 10 percent of the volume consumed in China, the world’s second-largest oil user user, this year. State-owned Saudi Aramco, which already owns 25 percent of China’s Fujian refinery — the kingdom’s first China investment — has also been eyeing a stake in the Qingdao venture, but negotiations with its Chinese partner have made little headway.
Sinopec started test runs last month at several refining units in Qingdao, including the crude facility and a catalytic cracker, but had to halt them for quick retooling due to minor construction faults, said one source close to the plant’s operations.
The refinery plans to start official trial runs later this month and produce its first on-specification oil products by end-May, the source who recently visited the refinery, told Reuters. The first cargo to run through the refinery — sweet crude from Congo — was to enable the smooth start-up of the new and sophisticated plant, industry sources have said. Apart from Saudi oil, Qingdao will refine crude from other Middle Eastern exporters such as Kuwait and Iraq.
Sinopec Group is the parent of New York and Hong Kong-listed Sinopec Corp , Asia’s largest refiner and China’s second-largest oil and gas producer. (Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Additional reporting by Maryelle Demongeot in Singapore, Editing by Ramthan Hussain) (aizhu.chen@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: aizhu.chen.reuters.com@reuters.net; +8610 6627 1211)

[Charles RandallParticipant]

Here is news update on China Sinopec Qingdao New Refinery (& Coker) addition getting its first delivery of Saudi Heavy crude.  The refinery is to come on-line by end of May 2008, which is earlier than previous timelines estimated.
 
Startup on Congo sweet crude and trials on units like FCC are mentioned but not the coker – which is not unusual for China announcements that are used to dealing with simple (complexity 4-7) refineries instead of newer complex ones.
 
I have Sinopec Qingdao Grassroots 200 MBD Refinery down for a 2009 start-up of new delayed coker (one of China’s 17-20 new coker additions) this would say the coker is already in place and ready for startup as well. They were estimated to produce ~ 800 kmtpy of fuel coke from ~ 40MBD coker charge.
 
There have been no new coker announcements on Sinopec Qingdao Refinery/Complex since Foster Wheeler’s in 2006, where they won bid for Petcoke CFB 75 MW boiler. FW Plans mfg at FW’s Xinhui facilities & it becomes one more of 16 boilers Sinopec has purchased from FW over last 10 years – course not all those were Petcoke fired like Qingdao’s..
Regards

[Charles RandallParticipant]

Qingdao refinery operational
6/18/08 BEIJING: China Petrochemical Corp. (Sinopec), Asia’s largest oil refiner, started production at its new Qingdao refinery on Monday.
The refinery is designed with a processing capacity of 10 million tonnes per year. It is the largest of its kind in the country.
The 12.5-billion-yuan ($1.8 billion) plant is expected to produce 7.08 million tonnes of refined oil each year with annual sales exceeding 40 billion yuan.
This would help ease the domestic fuel shortage and ensure supplies for the summer grain harvest, quake relief and Olympic Games, said market analysts. — Xinhua
 
<CER – Note still does not mention coker or 75MWe Petcoke Boiler start up date, but assuming it is online with refinery>

[Charles RandallParticipant]

China’s Sinopec newest Qingdao refinery to run at 70 pct in July 2008
Reuters / BEIJING, July 7, 2008 – China’s new Qingdao refinery will process at just over 70 percent of its capacity this month, above an earlier forecast, industry sources said on Monday, nearly two months after its smooth start-up and one month ahead of the Olympics.
“It’s in the process of trial production. You can’t really raise the operating ratio very high during this period,” said one official familiar with the 200,000 barrel-per-day refinery’s operations.
The plant, in the eastern province of Shandong and operated by Sinopec Group, parent of Sinopec Corp, is the only major new refining facility China has brought onstream so far this year.
It started churning out mostly diesel and gasoline in May, when domestic supplies were squeezed by refiners scaling back output to trim losses in the face of record crude costs and below-market domestic fuel rates.
Industry officials had earlier expected the plant to operate at about 60 percent of capacity through the third quarter.
The refinery has by now received at least two very large crude carriers , or 4 million barrels of Saudi oil, said a second official, a high-sulphur grade the plant is designed to process.
The refinery also processes Kuwait crude, the official added, without giving details.
 
 

[Charles RandallParticipant]

Here is update on Sinopec’s 200 MBD Grassroots Qingdao Refinery (& coker) which was brought online early ~ 2 months ago (originally 2009 startup target) to help with domestic fuel needs / Olympic demand & will continue run at 70% crude (up from May estimates of 60%). Sinopec / Reuters is still not mentioning the new coker or Petcoke fired 75MWe CFB (Becomes another one of 16 Boilers that Sinopec has purchased so far over last 10 years from Foster Wheeler). 
 
It mentions earlier articles receipt of 2 VLCC cargoes of Saudi crude & potential use Kuwait crude as well. (Will need to backfill some those options when new Saudi & Kuwait Refinery (& coker) expansions come online.)
 
As mentioned before (see May 2008 coking.com-coker post) this Refinery & Coker project is just one of 17-20 new cokers &/or coker expansion projects that I show planned for China.
 
While Qingdao may be the only new refinery on-stream so far this year there are already over 5 new coker additions / expansions brought online so far this year in China.
Regards

[Anonymous]

Could any one provide idea on refining capacity addition in China for 2008 and 2009. As per my estimates China will have have only one refinery commencing during this year while there are three plants to come online in 2009.
 
Best Regards,
Amit Rustagi
Analyst-Oil & Gas
Antique Stock Broking Ltd.
Direct: +91 22 4031 3434
 

[Charles RandallParticipant]

Amit,
Sorry I only track new refineries & projects that are connected to coking unit additions. And I think if your covering Asian Oil & Gas you should be telling us how many are coming online in short term / next 2 years. (:
 
I guess I also dont see that brokers/mutual fund analysts/some investment firms bring a lot of positive synergy into the refining sector so I an not normally inclined to provide lot specific information anyway. (Especially since none of you guys ever offer to pay for information when you ask or offer trade useable exchange information).
 
Also I am still not sure what kind capacity you are looking at either – the Huizhou is grassroots refinery (with coker) while Dalian, Fuzian & Qingdao (last 2 have coker additions also) I believe are existing refineries that are just expanding/adding capacity; so what kind/type refinery capacity addition you are looking at escapes me.
 
I will say that either way you grossly under-estimate the number of refinery capacity additions for 2008-9(even for just the ones with cokers – like Huizhou that already started up & has already put in for another capacity doubling). There were over 17-22 new China coker addition projects which were either grassroots or expansions that will come online between 2008-2011 (& largest group are in before end 2009) and that is not counting several (~5) additional/new JV projects that I have already posted recently on this website …… course most of these will likely be outside the 2009 time frame given +30 months lead construction time for coker installations.
 
I have been tracking down coker projects because there is such bad information on both number & type refineries in China. The O&G Journal 2007 WW Refining Survey is one worst with only 52 China refineries & only 8 those listed with cokers!!
Truth is there are nearly 41-43 Government (Sinopec & Petrochina) refineries with cokers, and of the +85 Independent refineries nearly 42-44 have cokers as well (counting the all Petchem Complex/Refineries like CNOOC’s) – these are often difficult to follow because without government subsidies most these independents have been down (or greatly reduced rates) over 2004-2008 time frame due to economics around cost +$100/Bbl crude with government capped $0.90/gallon fuel products price.
 
Regards

[Author]

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