Sinopec plant to stop buying Iran condensate in Q3 due to repairs
Sinopec Corp's Tianjin refinery will stop buying Iran's South Pars condensate from July through September partly because of a planned major plant overhaul, an industry official said on Friday, Reuters reports.
Tianjin Petrochemical Corp, a unit of state refiner Sinopec Corp, plans to shut down its 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) crude processing facilities and a one million tonne per year (tpy) ethylene complex from mid-August till the end of September.
The shutdown is scheduled about two weeks earlier than a previous plan.
"We will be under whole-plant maintenance from mid-August till the end of September. For July, it's due to some environmental factor as the South Pars oil will be difficult to handle in hot summer weather," said the official who declined to be named as he is not authorized to speak to media.
The plant last bought the Iranian super light crude oil for June arrival, the second month of imports this year after Sinopec resumed purchases of South Pars condensate following a halt in the first quarter because of contract disputes.
The refinery, in northern port city of Tianjin, near Beijing, retooled an idled crude unit into a condensate splitter in early 2011 to process Iranian condensate.
Parent company Sinopec Corp lined up with Iran its first annual deal of the crude-like fuel - used to make petrochemicals - last year with a volume of at least 24 million barrels.
A few other Sinopec plants -- Zhenhai, Guangzhou and Maoming -- also process the South Pars condensate, which industry officials said contains a high level of foul-smelling sulfide.
