A 2-mil-mt/yr catalytic reformer at CNOOC Huizhou refinery exploded after catching a fire at 4:10 Monday; the fire which has been extinguished by 9:00 caused no death or injury, CNOOC announced.
CNOOC has lowered run rates of some units at the refinery, a refinery source revealed, adding chemical units of CNOOC and Shell Petrochemicals were in normal operations.
Whether Huizhou refinery would go into overall turnaround ahead of scheduled is unknown, which was expected to start this October.
Located in South China’s Guangdong Province, Huizhou refinery is equipped with a 12-mil-mt/yr crude distillate unit, the largest one in China. It also has 1.2-mil-mt/yr fluid catalytic cracker, 4.2-mil-mt/yr delayed coker, 4-mil-mt/yr high-pressure hydrocracker, 3.6-mil-mt/yr mid-pressure hydrocracker, 2-mil-mt/yr gasoline/gasoil hydrogenation unit, 2-mil-mt/yr catalytic reformer and 280,000-mt/yr gas fractionation unit, etc. The refinery was affiliated by a 300,000-DWT crude jetty.
