Oil refineries

Three workers were injured in a fire that broke out inside Greece's second-largest oil refinery on Tuesday, forcing the evacuation of personnel, according to an announcement by Motor Oil, which operates the refinery.

A large explosion occurred at the Romanian oil refinery Petromidia in Navodari, Romania - on the coast of the Black Sea. This was reported by the Romanian media digi24.ro.

According to initial data, the explosion was followed by a fire. A video with the consequences of the explosion also appeared on social networks.

Bulgaria is looking to revive a trans-Balkan oil pipeline project to secure non-Russian crude oil supplies for its only oil refinery on the Black Sea, controlled by Russia's Lukoil, President Rumen Radev said on Tuesday.

Turkey's largest oil refiner Tüpraş will temporarily stop production at its 220,000-barrel-per-day İzmir oil refinery as coronavirus lockdowns hit fuel demand, the firm has said in a stock exchange filing.

Output at the refinery, which has an annual processing capacity of 11.9 million tons, will be suspended from May 5 until July 1, according to the filing.

The country's oil refineries, which are directly linked to the global oil market, are having to manage an unprecedented situation as a result of the volatility created by the slump in demand due to travel restrictions enforced around the world to contain Covid-19 and which sector officials describe to Kathimerini as the absolute imbalance of supply and demand.

Greece's biggest oil refiner Hellenic Petroleum (HELPE) played down reports on Thursday of a potentially large gas find off Crete, saying speculation was premature.
Citing a senior executive from HELPE, Greek media had reported that the refiner had indications for estimated gas reserves of 10 trillion cubic feet (tcf) off Crete, based on past seismic data.

The ministries of Energy and Development appear ready to tackle any incidents of profiteering in the fuel trade due to the global rise of rates, while market professionals also sought to downplay concerns about the consequences of geopolitical developments in the Middle East.

Greece's biggest oil refiner, Hellenic Petroleum, reported a 31 percent drop in second-quarter core profit on Thursday, hurt by refining margins which recorded a five-year low.

STAR Refinery has processed 1.5 million tons of crude oil to date and total production will reach 8 million tons by the end of this year, Zaur Gahramanov, head of Socar Türkiye, has said.

The commercial start-up of Turkey's new $6.3 billion oil refinery has been delayed until early next year and the plant is not expected to reach full capacity until mid-2019, three sources familiar with the matter said, as tests revealed minor faults.