Production • Processing • Handling
NGL gathering, long haul transportation, storage and fractionation. Te company owns fractionation capacity at the Gulf Coast Fractionators (GCF) and Enterprise fractionators in Mont Belvieu, Texas, as well as the Conway fractionator in Kansas. Phillips 66 is the operator of the GCF facility for the joint venture.
NGL feedstock for the Old Ocean fractionator
project would be supplied by several nearby pipelines avoiding the Mont Belvieu congestion, and purified products produced by the fractionator would be marketed primarily to petrochemical customers in the region with access to Mont Belvieu. Te project is currently in the engineering design phase, and the company is in the process of filing for all applicable permits.
Refinery sale Meanwhile Shell Australia has put its Geelong refinery on the market. Te proposed sale of the 120,000 bbl/d refinery is in line with the company’s global strategy to concentrate investment on large scale sites such as the company’s world-scale Pulau Bukom refinery in Singapore. Te announcement underpins Shell’s local strategy to grow its retail and bulk fuels business, along with terminals and pipelines. Shell’s announcement recognises that other
parties, with a different portfolio, may have an alternative strategy and want to enter or expand in the Australian refining market. Te company is seeking a buyer who will show due care for employees, provide reliable supply for
the company and its customers, and run the facility safely with respect for the environment and the Geelong community. Te company’s efforts are towards achieving a successful sale. Tere are other options available if a sale with agreeable terms and conditions cannot be reached - this could include converting the site to an import terminal.
Te company hopes to conclude the sales
process by the end of 2014 and says that it remains committed to its business in the country. Shell has operated in Australia for more than
110 years. It supplies fuel to around 900 Shell branded service stations across the nation - along with aviation fuel, marine fuel, chemicals, bitumen and lubricants to a wide range of customers. In other news, as part of the new vision of
Pakistan State Oil (PSO) to make the leading public sector company an integrated energy company and with the determination to secure Pakistan’s energy supply chain, PSO has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (GoKP) for the establishment of a state-of-the-art oil refinery in the province. As per the MoU, PSO will set up a technologically advanced refinery with a capacity of 40,000 bbl/d on about 400 acres of land in the district Kohat-Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Te project will be set-up through a public private partnership and will utilise crude oil from nearby indigenous supply sources for production of products conforming to Euro IV standards. Te multi-million Dollar project is expected to be fully commissioned by 2016-17. ●
Common corrosion problem on Chevron refineries A
new metallurgical evaluation of crude unit pipe samples from
the Chevron refineries in El Segundo, California, and Richmond, California, shows the same sulphidation corrosion process occurred in both, causing up to 60 per cent wall loss in a pipe sample from the El Segundo Refinery, according to a report issued by the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) and the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA). Te piping sample from the
Chevron El Segundo Refinery, immediately west of Los Angeles, had lost up to 60 per cent of its wall thickness, from 0.322 inches to 0.12 inches in the thinnest part.
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Te Richmond Refinery experienced a major process fire on 6 August, 2012, after crude unit distillation tower piping failed catastrophically due to sulphidation corrosion and severe pipe thinning. Te new report was completed
by Anamet, an independent materials engineering and laboratory testing company. After the 6 August fire in Richmond, Chevron voluntarily inspected and upgraded corresponding sections of piping from El Segundo, which has a nearly identical crude unit. Te tests compared sections of pipe from the #4-sidecuts in the two crude units. It was the #4-sidecut pipe in
Richmond that released a massive quantity of combustible gas-oil and other hydrocarbons in August 2012. No release or incident occurred in El Segundo, and Chevron has since replaced the corroded piping with an upgraded metallurgy that is more resistant to sulphidation corrosion. Te report’s main conclusion is that sulphidation corrosion had affected the El Segundo samples to a similar extent as the Richmond samples had been affected. “Te obvious difference between the two 4-sidecut lines was that Richmond suffered more extensive corrosion in one component that resulted in rupture,” note the authors. ●
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