A fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) was today confirmed by traders as being offline at TotalEnergies' 338,000 b/d Antwerp refinery in Belgium, following an unplanned outage at the site earlier this month.
An FCC converts low-sulphur vacuum gasoil (VGO) into predominantly gasoline and some naphtha. The refinery has since been confirmed as offering some low-sulphur vacuum gasoil (VGO), but further details were not disclosed.
TotalEnergies sold 110,000t of very-low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) barges in the fob northwest European barge spot market during 7-17 August. In the 12-day period prior to that, the firm sold just 40,000t of VLSFO barges, and it sold none in the spot market during 7-17 July.
Heavy, low-sulphur residual products, such as VLSFO, can be used as a feedstock in secondary refinery units such as FCCs. FCCs are fed with high density products that are low in sulphur and crack them to produce refined products with a lighter density — a process that allows refiners to extract more value from crude oil given lighter products tend to command sizeable premiums to heavier ones.
TotalEnergies did not respond to a request for comment.
