Vitol’s Malaysian Refinery Set To Meet IMO Demand

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  • Work started last month on Vitol’s new refinery in Malaysia to produce marine fuel compliant with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) 0.5pc sulphur cap.
  • The new refinery will have a 35,000 b/d crude distillation unit and is expected to be ready by the third quarter of 2020.
  • Vitol’s 82,000 b/d refinery Fujairah site announced its readiness to offer IMO-complaint low-sulphur fuel oil (LSFO).
  • German firm Uniper’s simple crude processing facility in Fujairah has been able to produce LSFO with sulphur content as low as 0.1pc since the start of 2017.

Trading firm Vitol has constructs a small refinery in Malaysia to produce International Maritime Organisation (IMO) sulphur cap compliant marine fuel, reports Argusmedia.

The new refinery

Vitol has started construction of a small refinery in Malaysia that will be geared to producing marine fuel compliant with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) 0.5pc sulphur cap. The IMO’s 0.5pc sulphur cap will come into force on 1 January 2020.

Work started last month on the refinery, which will have a 35,000 b/d crude distillation unit (CDU) and is expected to be ready by the third quarter of 2020.

The refinery will be located at the Tanjung Bin oil products storage terminal, which is  part-owned by Vitol. The crude quality to be fed into the CDU is yet to be decided.

Vitol’s refinery is the latest downstream project targeted at meeting expected growth in demand for IMO-complaint fuel.

Production and storage of IMO-complaint marine fuels

The terminal at the southern Malaysian port of Tanjung Pelepas, located within a few kilometres of the major regional bunkering hub of Singapore, has around 1.15mn m³ (7.25mn bl) of storage capacity.

UAE storage firm BPGIC this month said it will partner with Nigeria-based energy and infrastructure firm Sahara Energy to build a 250,000 b/d refinery at the UAE port of Fujairah that will also be geared towards production of IMO-complaint marine fuels.

Availability of IMO-complaint LSFO

Fujairah is the site of Vitol’s 82,000 b/d refinery, which in February announced its readiness to offer IMO-complaint low-sulphur fuel oil (LSFO).

And German firm Uniper’s simple crude processing facility in Fujairah has been able to produce LSFO with sulphur content as low as 0.1pc since the start of 2017.

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Source: Argusmedia