China's Orient Hualong to start building new gasoline hydrotreater

Independent Chinese refiner Shandong Orient Hualong plans to bring on stream a new 400,000 metric ton per year (mty) gasoline hydrotreater at its 2 million mty refinery in Guangrao, Shandong province on August 24, a refinery source said.
Construction of the unit in Eastern China began earlier this year and was recently completed. In addition, the refinery plans to build a 1.2 million mty diesel hydrotreater that will be completed by the end of 2014.
The launch of the new diesel hydrotreater will enable the refinery to produce diesel fuel that meets national Phase 4 emission standards, capping the maximum sulfur content at 50 parts per million (ppm).
Shandong Orient Hualong has three crude distillation units with a total processing capacity of 2 million mty, as well as a 1 million mty fluid catalytic cracker, a 600,000 mty hydrocracker and a 200,000 mty gas fractionation unit.
The refinery now processes mainly domestic atmospheric gas oil, vacuum residual oil and crude oil, which are bought from state-owned oil companies such as PetroChina, Sinopec and China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC).
Under its 12th Five-Year Plan covering 2011-15, the government will close small refineries with capacities of 1 million mty or below. As a result, many independent refineries in Shandong have expanded their processing capacities, with some able to process as much as 5 -8 million mty.
(August 13, 2013)