EMEA News
HES International Launches VLSFO production at Resurrected German Refinery
Terminal operator HES International has announced the start of very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) production at the resurrected Wilhelmshaven refinery in Germany.
The company has brought back online the vacuum distillation unit at Wilhelmshaven to produce VLSFO in time for IMO 2020. HES bought the refinery in 2011 but had turned it into a storage site.
The move is likely to deliver a significant boost to VLSFO production in Northwest Europe.
"With the commitment of a world-class energy major, HWTT has found a solid and reliable throughput partner for our operations for the next few years," HES said in a statement on its website last week.
The statement did not give the identity of the energy major, but in an article from March 2019 detailing the plan, news agency Reuters reported it had reached an agreement with Shell, citing two trading sources.
The deal would involve Shell bringing in the feedstock and handling the end product, Reuters cited one of the sources as saying.
The Wilhelmshaven facility now has nameplate production capacity of 2.5 million mt/year of VLSFO, HES said.
