Taiwan refiners brace for super Typhoon Krathon as ports shut ahead of landfall

Formosa Petrochemical

01/10/2024 05:29

SINGAPORE, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Taiwan oil refiners are
bracing for heavy rain and winds ahead of super Typhoon
Krathon's anticipated landfall, with the storm likely to delay
some fuel shipments and prolong maintenances, while key ports
are shut, industry sources said.
    Krathon has strengthened into the equivalent of a Category 4
hurricane and is expected to cross the densely populated west
coast to hit the major port city of Kaohsiung early on Wednesday
afternoon.
    State-owned Taiwanese refiners CPC Corp  MOEATA.UL  and
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPCC)  6505.TW  closed their
respective ports in Kaohsiung and Mailiao as of Tuesday as a
precautionary measure, industry sources told Reuters.
    Refineries on the island operated as normal on Tuesday,
though cargo deliveries and any ongoing maintenance completion
are expected to be delayed by a few days due to the typhoon,
said sources.
    "Our RDS (residue desulphurisation) unit is currently under
a scheduled shutdown and is expected to restart in early
November, though the typhoon is likely to lengthen the
turnaround time by a few days," said FPCC spokesperson KY Lin.
    "Our RFCC (residual fluid catalytic cracking) unit has been
under unplanned maintenance since Sept. 23, originally expected
to take about 22 days for it to restart," Lin added.
    Meanwhile, refinery operations at CPC remained unaffected so
far, though its Kaohsiung port operations were halted as of
Monday afternoon, market sources said.
    CPC operates a 200,000-barrel-per-day refinery at Taoyuan in
northern Taiwan and a 450,000-bpd refinery at Talin in southwest
Taiwan. Its spokesperson could not be immediately reached for a
comment.

 (Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Sumana Nandy)
 ((jeslyn.lerh@thomsonreuters.com))