DATE : 2014-09-16
Russia's Lukoil has postponed the shutdown for scheduled maintenance at its 150,000 mt/year acrylonitrile plant in Saratov, southern Russia, till October a source close to the company said Tuesday.
Originally, the plant was slated to commence its shutdown this week, lasting until to November 3 but it was delayed to coincide with the postponed shutdown at the company's Norsi facility in Nizhny Novgorod.
The source said that the ACN unit will commence its turnaround at the beginning of October and was expected to restart at the beginning of November.
Last week, Lukoil said it would postpone maintenance at its Russian refineries to November from September.
The company previously planned partial maintenance at its Norsi and Perm refineries this month.
The decision to postpone the refinery maintenance was aimed at securing sufficient gasoline supply on the domestic market, Lukoil's CEO Vagit Alekperov was quoted as saying by the country's Prime news agency last week.
According to traders, Norsi was set to carry out works on its FCC for most of September and October and although the works have been postponed the actual dates of the maintenance have not been confirmed.
Norsi has one FCC with a capacity of 41,000 b/d. Lukoil is planning to launch a second catalytic cracking unit at the facility in June 2015, with a capacity of around 2.6 million mt/year.
SOURCE Platts