Cepsa shuts down aromatics site for turnaround

28 February 2008 12:18  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--CEPSA (Compania Espanola de Petroleos SA) has halted production of aromatics at its site in Huelva, Spain, in a planned move to replace a reformer catalyst, a company source said on Thursday.

 

“We will shut down production for approximately two weeks, starting from today,” the source said. “Our reformer requires a catalyst change, which will be in progress from this weekend.” 

 

As the outage had been planned, as little as two days of “real” production would be lost during the shutdown, the source said.    

 

According to ICIS plants and projects, CEPSA produces 400,000 tonnes/year of benzene and 180,000 tonnes/year of cyclohexane at the Huelva facility.

 

Benzene values had firmed throughout February on the back of a perceived shortfall of supply into the second quarter of 2008, with CEPSA’s turnaround cited alongside reported future turnarounds at benzene units owned by ConocoPhillips, Dow and ExxonMobil as tightening factors in coming months.

 

Meanwhile, spot benzene traded at $1,178/tonne (€780/tonne) CIF (cost insurance and freight) ARA (Amsterdam Rotterdam and Antwerp) and $1,180/tonne CIF ARA on Thursday morning, down from high February deals of as much as $1,210/tonne CIF ARA heard in previous weeks but still as much as $100/tonne higher than at the same time in January.

 

($1 = €0.66)

 

For more on benzene visit ICIS chemical intelligence

 

ICIS Copyright © Reed Business Information 2009

Author: Peter Salisbury
+44 20 8652 3214

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