Tampa: Maintenance at the Shell Oil Co. and Motiva Enterprises LLC jointly-run Norco refinery in St. Charles, La., triggered a violent flaring event on Nov. 18, according to reports. The flaring occurred during a system restart on two units that had been offline for about a month for scheduled maintenance, and was visible to observers 25 miles away in New Orleans.
Flaring was expected to continue for several days until the restart is concluded, prompting the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality to actively monitor air quality in the area, a source said.
The price of molten sulfur delivered to Tampa was $110/lt for the fourth quarter.
Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, domestic refinery utilization and daily crude input data were unavailable at press time.
U.S. Gulf: Prilled sulfur sold from the Gulf Coast was unchanged at $115-$120/mt FOB for the week. Some market players described a recent uptick in offer levels to Brazil, but believed transactions had yet to conclude at the higher price points.
Vancouver: Vancouver market players saw no change in the offshore spot market for the week, quoting last-done around $120/mt FOB.
Chinese spot was similarly unmoved at $145/mt CFR.
Alberta netbacks were reported in a range of (-)$12-$85/mt FOB, unchanged from the week before.
West Coast: Sources called the West Coast prill market steady in the $115-$120/mt FOB range. Molten sulfur contracts were $65-$115/lt FOB for the fourth quarter.
Tesoro Corp.’s Carson, Calif., refinery began an unplanned turnaround on or around Nov. 21, according to industry reports. Maintenance to rectify the issue remained underway as of Nov. 23. It was unknown which of the 251,000 barrel/d refinery’s units were affected.
ADNOC: The Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. offered November prilled sulfur cargoes at $125/mt FOB Ruwais.
Aramco: Saudi Aramco sulfur for December loading carried a $128/mt FOB Jubail price tag, $13/mt higher than the November price of $115/mt FOB.
Tasweeq: The Qatar price of formed sulfur for the month of November was $124/mt FOB Ras Laffan, $21/mt above October’s $103/mt FOB.
Tasweeq awarded an EPC contract to Qatar Kentz Corp. Ltd. for the construction of a water recycling plant at its Laffan Refinery 2 expansion project, according to reports. Laffan Refinery 2, slated for completion in fourth-quarter 2016, is projected to double Laffan 1 Refinery production to roughly 300,000 barrels/d.
Mexico: Pemex announced a planned $1.1 billion upgrade at its Tula Refinery in Central Mexico, reports indicated. The upgrade is expected raise production capacity by 7.5 percent, to 340,000 barrels/d. Mechanical completion of the project is slated for second quarter 2018.