This topic contains 5 replies, has 2 voices, and was last updated by 
-
Posts
-
<Frontier El Dorado coker 3MBD expansion delayed start so perhaps finish October now? CER>
—– Original Message —–
Frontier Kansas Refinery Coker Expansion Delayed Until July
2008-06-12 10:49 (New York)By Robert Tuttle
June 12 (Bloomberg) — Frontier Oil Corp., which operates
refineries in Kansas and Wyoming, said it has delayed the start
of a coker expansion project until late July at its El Dorado,
Kansas, refinery.
The project to add 3,000 barrels a day of coking capacity
to the plant is expected to be finished in August, Doug Aron, a
company spokesman, said in a telephone interview. The expansion,
originally scheduled for completion in mid-June, was delayed
because the company is “waiting on contractors,” Aron said.
Cokers refine the heaviest components of crude oil into
lighter products for making fuel. A gasoil hydrotreater and
fluid catalytic cracker are scheduled for expansion in the fall
of 2009, Paul Eisman, executive vice president of Frontier, said
in a Feb. 26 conference call.
The Kansas plant, the bigger of Frontier’s two refineries,
can process 112,000 barrels of oil a day, according to U.S.
Energy Department data. -
<Here is update on Frontier Expansion – Refinery valuation assessment has been lowered to $300,000 but still doubles City income for Fire Protection provided – CER>
Refinery assessment would more than double citys portion
//
El Dorado Times Wed Jul 16, 2008, 12:57 PM CDT
El Dorado, Kan. – Like all of the taxing entities, the city of El Dorado is also being affected by the change in Frontier Refinery’s valuation assessment.The refinery had requested to eliminate $94,000 from their valuation, bringing the assessment down from about $400,000 to $300,000, which is still up the the $90,000 valuation previously. Because of the hearing held on the valuation, many taxing entities did not budget to spend that amount until they had a final dollar amount.
The refinery settled on a $300,000 amount at the beginning of the year. If the state allows this new exemption, the benefit from the valuation will still almost double for the entities. The refinery accounts for 50 percent of the value of the entire county.
If the change is approved, the city is set to receive about $500,000 from its five mills it receives for providing fire protection for El Dorado township. Last year, they received about $200,000.
-
AnonymousWith this delay in construction, have you heard anything about quality of petcoke (sulfur levels increasing) during the past few months? Are they infact refining heaver crudes without the new units in place?
-
Most of the Petcoke publications for July (~June operations/coke market) did not indicate any changes to the Frontier/El Dorado coking operation and its still early for August reports (July actuals). But anything is possible.
However lot of refineries limp into a shutdown & this one has been postponed for 3 months so I doubt they would push the units harder on the tail end of run if they are going to try to make it until October. Also the expansion indicates they are going to be expanding both the GasOil Hydrotreater & FCC in 2009 right after they bump the coker capacity by 4 MBD. This would indicate to me they have some downstream capacity constraints to remove before they can take full switch to heavier crude slate change and fully utilize the coker.
Any significant increase in heavier crudes to El Dorado would likely end up in the coker & show up in the petcoke. Given current level of sulfur in petcoke, the existing customers would not likely take this type HS petcoke and it would be too early yet for their to be enough volume to place it as separate sale.
I would appreciate feedback if anyone in petcoke market or at Frontier has info otherwise.
Hope this helps. Regards -
AnonymousDoes anyone have any data from El Dorado stating the sulfur levels of their current production green delayed pet coke?
-
AnonymousI recently got word that El Dorado is consistantly producing GDC under 5% sulfur. This is really the first time this year that they have had a long stretch under 5%.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.