What is the operating rate of local refineries currently?

The operating rate of the atmospheric and vacuum distillation units at Shandong’s local refineries has dropped to 12-13%, hitting a new historical low and falling by 2-3 percentage points compared to last week. Refineries in Shandong that use imported fuel oil as raw material for refining are suffering severe losses. On the one hand, refining costs are high, and on the other hand, prices of end products remain low, resulting in heavy losses for these refineries which can no longer bear the burden; as a result, some atmospheric and vacuum distillation units have started to operate at reduced capacity. The atmospheric and vacuum distillation units that are currently operating normally include those at Binzhou Petrochemical with a capacity of 1.8 million tons per year, Shenghua Petrochemical with a capacity of 600,000 tons per year, Binyang Petrochemical with a capacity of 1.5 million tons per year, CNOOC Petrochemical with a capacity of 1.2 million tons per year, Jincheng Petrochemical with a capacity of 300,000 tons per year, and Lijin Petrochemical with a capacity of 200,000 tons per year. The processing capacity of the operating atmospheric and vacuum distillation units combined is 5.6 million tons per year.

There is no fuel tax only for asphalt production; it’s very difficult to operate units for atmospheric and vacuum distillation, and it’s getting harder to make a profit

We are a purely private refinery with 600,000 tons of catalytic cracking capacity, 800,000 tons of atmospheric and vacuum distillation capacity, and 100,000 tons of hydrocracking-MTBE capacity; all these units are still in operation. However, in the past two days, two boilers stopped working – one was under major maintenance, and the other had a problem with its slag remover, forcing us to use gas as a fuel source. The pressure in the steam system wasn’t very high, and in order to protect the catalytic cracking units, we had to shut down the hydrocracking and atmospheric/vacuum distillation units. Still, the electric deionization unit in the atmospheric/vacuum distillation plant remains operational. Then, the construction of 1.2 million tons of delayed coking capacity and 800,000 tons of hydrogen production via hydrogenation has also begun. The company will hold a groundbreaking ceremony next week, with city leaders in attendance; it is said that the ceremony will be held on a grand scale as it is a political task. Last edited by wdepei on 2009-3-18 21:10.]

The device is turned on and off frequently, and I’ve learned a lot from that. What happens? The main oil and gas pipeline stops operating due to issues with oil and gas flow, the compressors shut down as a result of interlocks, the slurry system stops working because of coking, there are shutdowns caused by large leaks of liquefied gas, and then there’s also the situation where the owner simply doesn’t have the money to keep things running – whatever can go wrong, does. . . . . . If there’s no problem, run a routing cycle; if still fine, proceed with line-scanning cooking. . There’s so much to learn. . . :lol :lol

Yes, things are getting increasingly difficult for us in the refining industry these days. We don’t have any planned oil supplies, nor are there any subsidies to cover the losses incurred in refining. One major reason is the economic crisis, which has led to poor sales of refined oil; another issue is the high prices of raw materials. At present, most of our production facilities have been shut down, and even when some plants are operating, their capacity is only around 70%