Sinopec's Luoyang Petrochemical began to replace self-made mid-sulfur petcoke with imported high-sulfur cargoes to fuel its circulating fluidized-bed (CFB) boiler in October, a source with the oil major said.
The refinery sold to the spot market 4,000mt of petcoke with 2.5-2.9% of sulfur contents at an ex-refinery price of around Yuan 1,900/mt last month, a source with the refinery said. Meanwhile, it purchased imported resources with 3.5-4% of sulfur contents from Shandong's Longkou Port, which were delivered at the price of Yuan 1,600/mt, he added.
"Once the ex-refinery price was Yuan 200/mt above CFR cost of the imported high-sulfur petcoke, the exchange plan would show economic efficiency and we would consider importing resources as burning fuel for CFR boiler," the source denoted.
As a key petcoke producer by Sinopec in North China's Henan Province, the refinery used to reserve 500-600mt of petcoke output for self consumption per day, he said. Thanks to the exchange plan, it would have 1,200-1,300mt of products available for commercial sale in November, almost doubled compared with the previous month, according to the source.
The refinery was likely to made frequent exchange in the future as it was attempting to bring down its fuel costs by feeding the CFB boiler with higher-sulfur petcoke, according to him.
The refinery would import 10,000mt more in November, he added.
Luoyang Petrochemical mainly produces petcoke with 2.5-2.9% of sulfur, 0.3% of ash contents and with 8-11% of volatility.
Similar exchanges had been successfully tried out in recent years in some other large refineries underlying Sinopec, like Guangzhou Petrochemical and Tianjin Petrochemical, as reported earlier.
The refinery sold to the spot market 4,000mt of petcoke with 2.5-2.9% of sulfur contents at an ex-refinery price of around Yuan 1,900/mt last month, a source with the refinery said. Meanwhile, it purchased imported resources with 3.5-4% of sulfur contents from Shandong's Longkou Port, which were delivered at the price of Yuan 1,600/mt, he added.
"Once the ex-refinery price was Yuan 200/mt above CFR cost of the imported high-sulfur petcoke, the exchange plan would show economic efficiency and we would consider importing resources as burning fuel for CFR boiler," the source denoted.
As a key petcoke producer by Sinopec in North China's Henan Province, the refinery used to reserve 500-600mt of petcoke output for self consumption per day, he said. Thanks to the exchange plan, it would have 1,200-1,300mt of products available for commercial sale in November, almost doubled compared with the previous month, according to the source.
The refinery was likely to made frequent exchange in the future as it was attempting to bring down its fuel costs by feeding the CFB boiler with higher-sulfur petcoke, according to him.
The refinery would import 10,000mt more in November, he added.
Luoyang Petrochemical mainly produces petcoke with 2.5-2.9% of sulfur, 0.3% of ash contents and with 8-11% of volatility.
Similar exchanges had been successfully tried out in recent years in some other large refineries underlying Sinopec, like Guangzhou Petrochemical and Tianjin Petrochemical, as reported earlier.
