Antwerp to get €2.3 billion in refinery upgrades
Refineries in Antwerp are to receive €2.3 billion (USD $2.8 billion) in modernisation investments so they can produce a greater volume of lighter oil products and stay competitive, according to Belgian financial daily De Tijd, Ship & Bunker reports.
U.S. oil and gas company ExxonMobil [NYSE:XOM] was said to be investing €1.3 billion ($1.6 billion), French multinational Total [NYSE:TOT] €1.0 billion ($1.2 billion), and commodity trading firm Gunvor an undisclosed amount at its BRC Antwerp refinery, which it bought it from the insolvent Petroplus and restarted operations at in May, noting at the time that Petroplus "invested heavily in the refinery in recent years."
According to the De Tijd report, demand for lighter products, such as diesel, is now much greater than heavy fuel oil.
The news is expected to be a boost for the Port of Rotterdam as crude oil for the Belgian plants is largely imported via Rotterdam and transported by pipeline to Antwerp.
Dutch daily Het Financieele Dagblad said 100 million tonnes of crude oil a year is shipped to the port of Rotterdam and then pumped to five refineries in Rotterdam, one in Vlissingen, three in Antwerp, and two in Germany, with the three refineries in Antwerp processing around 35 million tonnes of crude oil a year.
In Rotterdam, the Shell, BP, Exxon, Kuwait Petroleum and Koch refineries process roughly 50 million tonnes of crude oil.