Powerpoint on Denver's Sunco refinery

[MonumentOiler]

This presentation is pretty interesting. Especially how the company bought the refinery with the intention of using it to refine "Synthetic Crude" piped from the Canadian tar sands. The "Synthetic Crude" is basically processed from the tar sands to a pump-able state and then sent through pipelines to be refined.

Suncor Denver Refinery Overview 2010

Also note the 570 ton hydrotreater vessel that cost $4 million to build and another $4 million to ship to Denver. That's why the new low-sulfur Diesel is more expensive.

 

[MonumentOiler]

And a bit more on Synthetic Crudes for those who need more petrochemical engineer jargon in their life.

Synthetic Crudes

 

[MonumentOiler]

I was curious why the $4 million dollar part was shipped instead of built on site but I guess it takes pretty big facilities to build something like that. I suspect it was built here ...

BELLELI ENERGY - SHARJAh HAMRIYAH FREE ZONE

Built in the United Arab Emirates by an Italian firm for a Canadian corporation for use in the United States (For the processing of Canadian crudes). Amazing.

 

[chubbs1]

Very interesting, do you know who they (SUNCOR) supply some of their synthetic oils to? Any of the Majors?

 

[MonumentOiler]

It looks like the "Synthetic Crudes" are tougher to refine than standard crudes and a major purpose of buying and updating the Denver refinery was to create a downstream for them.

 

[Jeff_in_VABch]

Originally Posted By: MonumentOiler

I was curious why the $4 million dollar part was shipped instead of built on site but I guess it takes pretty big facilities to build something like that. I suspect it was built here ...

BELLELI ENERGY - SHARJAh HAMRIYAH FREE ZONE

Built in the United Arab Emirates by an Italian firm for a Canadian corporation for use in the United States (For the processing of Canadian crudes). Amazing.


Both facilites must be directly adjacent a deepwater port to make the fabrication and shipping of heavy items work out.

Otherwise the item is shop fabricated and field welded, i.e a water tower.

I formerly worked at an ASME code pressure vessel fabricator who made these types of process vessels. The union totally ran that shop even though none of management, estimating or engineering are ever in the union. The union made the costs high and shop work painful. When walking out in the plant it was almost like you and the union guys didnt work for the same company. Fabbed in UAE, I believe it.

 

[BrandonT]

The vessel was fabricated and welded wherever it came from, shipped to the US, then put on a train from Texas to Colorado. Even that wasn't easy as I heard they had to modify a bridge somewhere between TX and CO to take the weight. The walls are 6 inches thick, designed to run over 2000psi, I doubt there are many refineries with the expertise to weld something like that on site. I don't think it was a union issue

 

[Solarent]

Originally Posted By: chubbs1
Very interesting, do you know who they (SUNCOR) supply some of their synthetic oils to? Any of the Majors?


Suncor Energy owns PetroCanada, and although my information may be a little dated is one of two north american producers of Group III base oils (my notes say Chevron is the other). I know for sure they process and distribute through their own channels, and I think they sell / exchange base stocks with most of the majors. I could be way off base though, because my notes on this are from a couple of years ago....