Thai Bangchak refinery shut after fire- impact on Asian market to be minimal

05-Jul-12

A fire gas resulted in shutdown of Bangchak Petroleum's 120,000 bpd refinery in Bangkok. However, this is expected to have little impact on the Asian markets. The company's vice president for finance, Ninthira Abhising, told Platts: "There is very little LPG that we produce at the refinery. I reckon it's not more than 4,000 mt [each month], and although we used to sell it to the wholesale [domestic] market when the prices were high, recently, with prices having fallen so much, we have been using it in our system." The ratio of propane and butane produced by the refinery is not clear. But mostly it is small volumes which could get substituted by buying from PTT. Bangchak Petroleum shut its entire refinery following a fire at a kerosene stripper in its 80,000 b/d No. 2 crude distillation unit. The company plans to restart the unaffected 40,000 b/d No. 3 CDU and a 25,000 b/d hydrocracker a week later, but will keep the rest of the refinery shut -- including the No. 2 CDU -- for 30 days.