Israel’s largest refinery, the 197,000 b/d Bazan plant in Haifa, completed an expansion from 180,000 b/d in mid-2012. It had been looking at further expansion. But local environmental groups appear to have put the kibosh on those plans, with the Environmental Protection Ministry going as far as to recommend that Bazan shuts down its facilities and relocate. This is highly unlikely to happen, at least by the ministry’s suggested target date of 2025, given the importance of the plant to Israel’s energy security.
Further complicating any notions of moving the facilities, Bazan has two subsidiaries operating integrated petchems plants at its Haifa site. Carmel Olefins operates a cracker and polyolefins units with final products capacities of 450,000 t/y polypropylene and 170,000 t/y polyethylene. Gadiv operates aromatics and solvents plants with combined 600,000 t/y capacity. Carmel processes naphtha and LPG from the refinery while Gadiv processes naphtha. (CONTINUED - 275 WORDS)
