PetroChina completes Huabei refinery expansion

State-controlled PetroChina has started operations at a 100,000 b/d expansion of its Huabei refinery in northern China, doubling capacity at the plant to 200,000 b/d.

All new units are now on line, enabling the refinery to process more crude and raise production of gasoline, diesel and jet-kerosine. The expansion adds 15 new units, including a 100,000 b/d crude distillation unit (CDU), 3.4mn t/yr residue hydrotreater, 2.9mn t/yr hydrocracker, two fluid catalytic crackers with combined capacity of 2.8mn t/yr and a 31,000 b/d naphtha-fed reforming unit, as well as upgrades at three existing units.

The refinery in Renqiu city, Hebei province completed the long-delayed expansion at the end of June last year, but PetroChina decided to start operations in three phases as it integrated the new units and waited for associated infrastructure to be ready. It started the new CDU, idled the older 100,000 b/d CDU and began trials at nine new secondary units in late September/early October last year. Another five secondary units had begun operations by late April, while the older CDU was restarted and the remaining new units had come on line by yesterday.

PetroChina has been preparing for the Huabei expansion since 2006 and originally started work in 2014, aiming to double refinery capacity in 2016.

The new CDU is designed to process crude with sulphur content capped at 2.75pc. It been processing blends of locally-produced Huabei and Jidong crude with low-sulphur imported cargoes from the Middle East. Huabei receives crude imports through a 140,000 b/d pipeline from nearby Tianjin port.

The start-up of the new units will enable the refinery to increase crude runs later this year. Huabei had set a target to process 140,000 b/d of crude this year, up from around 80,000 b/d last year. But the expansion start-up was delayed slightly from April as previously planned, which could threaten this target.

The expansion will enable Huabei to produce up to 67,000 b/d of gasoline and 75,000 b/d of diesel at full capacity, compared with 40,500 b/d of gasoline and 37,000 b/d of diesel previously. Huabei is linked to PetroChina's long-distance 280,000 b/d Fushun-Jinzhou-Zhengzhou oil product pipeline network, the Jinzhou-Zhengzhou section of which is expected to start trials later this year.

Huabei will be capable of supplying up to 1.7mn t/yr (37,000 b/d) of jet fuel for the new Beijing Daxing international airport through a newly-built 156km pipeline with the same capacity. Supply will start after jet fuel production from the refinery's new 1mn t/yr jet-kerosine (21,500 b/d) hydrogenation unit is certified. Work on the unit started in May 2018 and was completed in November.