Two new refining technologies are on the stocks for Europe and Asia.
Total has selected KBR’s ROSE solvent deasphalting technology for use at their Antwerp refinery in Belgium. The company is expecting the ROSE unit to significantly enhance the refinery's profitability.
Due to come on stream in early 2016, the ROSE technology will split 48,000 barrels-per-stream-day of residue from a mix of crude oils into deasphalted oil (DAO) and asphaltene. The DAO will be upgraded in a mild hydrocracking unit and the asphaltene will be blended into fuel oil.
Meanwhile, the on-off Trans-Asia Refinery Ltd Pakistan plant has now been given the green light and will become the most complex refinery in Pakistan, producing more than 100,000 barrels of oil-based products a day and four million tonnes of petroleum products annually. The refinery will be located at Port Qasim, Karachi.
Because of the delays in approving the plant, Pakistan's leading engineering and construction company, Descon,is being asked to make a complete 'health check' inspection of the TRL refining equipment before an EPC contractor is finalised. To add to the complexity, Trans-Asia Refinery has also just completed a management restructure aimed at pushing the project forward.
When completed, the TRL Refinery will annually produce 80,000 tonnes of LPG, 455,000 tonnes of Naphtha, 410,000 tonnes of motor gasoline, 422,000 tonnes of jet fuel, around 1m tonnes of both gas oil and fuel oil and 200,000 tonnes of bitumen. All of the products are currently in high demand in Pakistan.