(Reuters) – The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted maintenance at oil and gas projects and refineries from Russia’s Far East to the coast of Canada, storing up problems for an industry already reeling from slumping prices, analysts say.
Below is a list of projects that have been affected in recent months:
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Total’s Grandpuits refinery near Paris, Feyzin refinery near Lyon and Gonfreville Normandy refinery in northern France all delayed maintenance due to the outbreak.
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Phillips 66 (PSX.N) is delaying three sizeable scheduled shutdowns at its refineries this year, the company said last week, because of concerns that coronavirus could spread among the refineries’ workers if the maintenance goes ahead.
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BP Plc (BP.L) delayed a planned turnaround at its Australian refinery to late 2021 from early next year to observe coronavirus social distancing restrictions. It has also delayed the start date of its Cherry Point refinery in Washington.
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Energy trader Gunvor Group told Reuters that a major turnaround at its 88,000-bpd refinery in Rotterdam remained on hold.
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Marathon Petroleum Corp (MPC.N) pushed back the start date of a multi-unit overhaul at its 585,000 barrel-per-day Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas, to late April, said sources familiar with plant operations.
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INEOS INEOSG.UL postponed a planned shutdown of its Forties Pipeline System (FPS) planned for June until spring next year “as a consequence of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.”
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Citgo’s refinery in Lemont, Illinois, had pushed a multi-unit turnaround project due to start in late March to May 1, but further delayed the turnaround to another 2-3 weeks, according to a source familiar with plant operations.
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In Vietnam, Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Co delayed maintenance at its Dung Quat refinery once to July and then to August, after travel curbs affected its preparation for the maintenance, according to a company statement. The firm faced difficulties shipping needed equipment to Vietnam, a source told Reuters, and travel bans made it difficult for foreign contractors to send workers to the refinery.
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A major maintenance programme in Russia’s Far East Sakhalin-2 project faced delay as the firm could not receive pre-ordered pieces of machinery, two sources told Reuters.
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Its neighbour, Sakhalin-1 project, operated by ExxonMobil (XOM.N), has said that it was adjusting the schedule and scope of its activities.
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Qatar Petroleum has delayed some routine and unnecessary maintenance, its chief executive Saad al-Kaabi told Reuters in April, due to the spread of the coronavirus and constraints on movement.
