Formosa Petchem to raise refinery runs from April as maintenance ends

Formosa Chemicals and Fibre

09/04/2019 06:57

* Formosa Petchem to complete CDU maintenance soon
    * Formosa Petchem fully operating naphtha crackers 
    * Too soon to tell if fire at sister company would affect
crackers

    SINGAPORE, April 9 (Reuters) - Taiwan's Formosa
Petrochemical Corp  6505.TW  will raise the throughput at its
crude oil refinery from the second-half of April after finishing
maintenance at a crude unit, a company spokesman said on
Tuesday.
    Formosa's Mailiao refinery, which can process 540,000
barrels per day (bpd) of crude, will raise its throughput to
over 82 percent from 70 percent currently, K.Y. Lin, a company
spokesman said. 
    The plant has been operating at lower capacity because of
planned maintenance on a 180,000 bpd crude distillation unit
that has kept it shut since the start of March.  REF/A  
    Formosa, one of Asia's top ten largest refinery by capacity,
also operates three naphtha crackers with a total capacity of
about 2.93 million tonnes per year. 
    All the crackers are currently operating at full capacity,
said Lin. 
    However, Formosa may need to reduce cracker runs after a
fire at its sister company Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp
 1326.TW  (FCFC) on Sunday caused by a gas leak, Lin said,
though it is still too early to determine what is the next step.
    Formosa Petrochemical supplies pyrolysis gasoline or pygas,
a by-product from naphtha cracking, to FCFC. 
    FCFC's No. 3 aromatics line was affected by the gas leak and
fire and a prolonged shutdown would mean a lack of a processing
outlet for the pygas, which would have to be stored or sold to a
third party.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N21Q2O2
    FCFC also off takes naphtha from the Mailiao refinery. 
    

 (Reporting by Seng Li Peng; additional reporting by Jeanny Kao
in TAIPEI; editing by Christian Schmollinger)
 ((lipeng.seng@thomsonreuters.com; +65 6870 3086; Reuters
Messaging: lipeng.seng.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))