C1 Energy (Guangzhou)-----Mar 5, 2010----PetroChina Liaohe Petrochemical has started a one-month turnaround on around Feb 24 after one 1-mil-mt crude distillate unit encountered an outage, ahead of the scheduled Mar 2, said a source with the refinery.
Due to the turnaround, the refinery reduced its bitumen output plan for March by 40%, or 42,600mt, to 63,000mt, the source said. The output loss is estimated to cut supply in the northeast region by 23% to 130,000-135,000mt in March, C1's survey showed. Local supply is not likely to recover until early April, when the maintenance is finished.
The wider supply gap lends strong support to the market. Bitumen prices will probably go up further this month in the northeast region, led by Liaohe refinery's markup. "Even for the cargoes yet to be lifted, the prices are settled at Yuan 4,400/mt, up by Yuan 100/mt, "said one local trader.
Liaohe refinery is now preparing feedstocks at present and is predicted to restart bitumen production in April. However, market sources widely expected the prices may return stable next month because the supply in both northeast and north region will rebound with major refineries restoring their output while downstream buyers finishing stock replenishment.
Liaohe refinery, located in Panjin City of Liaoning Province, is one of the biggest bitumen producers in China. With crude processing capacity of 5-mil mt/yr, it is capable of producing 1.6-mil mt of bitumen per year. The refinery owns three CDUs, crude processing capacities of which are 1-mil mt/yr, 1.5-mil mt/yr and 2.5-mil mt/yr, respectively.
