Refinery Status: Flaring at Wood River Caused by Planned Maintenance

By Dow Jones Business News,  February 26, 2013, 11:59:00 AM EDT


The following table lists unplanned and planned production outages at U.S. refineries as reported by Dow Jones Newswires. The information is compiled from both official and unofficial refining sources and doesn't purport to be a comprehensive list.

Flaring at Phillips 66's ( PSX ) Wood River refinery in Roxana, Ill., was caused by scheduled maintenance, a company spokesman said Feb. 26. Phillips 66 reported a process upset at the 328,000-barrel-a-day refinery Feb. 25.

The gasoline-producing unit at Motiva Enterprises LLC'sPort Arthur, Texas, refinery is running normally after being successfully restarted over the weekend, a person familiar with the refinery's operations said Feb. 25.

Valero Energy Corp. ( VLO ) reported a process upset resulting in flaring from a coker unit at its Port Arthur, Texas, refinery Feb. 25. Valero spokesman Bill Day said there was no impact to production at the 290,000-barrel-a-day refinery, and the coker remained in operation.

Phillips 66 ( PSX ) reported a process upset at its Borger, Texas, refinery Monday, according to a filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

BP PLC (BP.LN, BP) could begin restarting the gasoline-production unit at its Carson, Calif., refinery this week after more than a month of maintenance, a person familiar with the refinery's operations said Feb. 25.

Exxon Mobil Corp.'s ( XOM ) Baytown Texas refinery is running normally following a boiler trip that resulted in emissions, a spokesman said Feb. 23.

Tesoro Corp.'s ( TSO ) Los Angeles-area refinery is running normally following scheduled maintenance, a spokesman said Feb. 22. The 103,800 barrel-a-day refinery had been undergoing planned, unspecified work, the spokesman said. That work is now complete.

Motiva Enterprises LLC on Feb. 16-17 will begin planned maintenance at Port Arthur, Texas. Units involved in the work are the main plant's coker unit, a crude unit and one of the sulfur plants, a person familiar with the refinery's operations said on Feb. 15. The restart timing wasn't known.

BP PLC (BP.LN, BP) on Feb. 14 is restarting a key gasoline-production unit FCCU and an alkylation unit at its refinery in Carson, Calif., after five weeks of planned maintenance, a person familiar with the refinery's operations said.

Tesoro Corp. ( TSO ) on Feb. 9 restarted an unspecified "major unit" at its Martinez, Calif., refinery, a filing made public on Feb. 13 said. In separate filings, the company reported the start-up of unspecified major processing units on Feb. 8 and on Jan. 23.

Alon USA ( ALJ ) said in a government filing on Feb. 11 the fluid catalytic cracking unit at the 67,000-barrel-a-day refinery "is currently running at minimum charge" during a wider maintenance turnaround. The company also will bring the CO boiler down for up to six days of repair work, the filing said. Alon USA Partners LP ( ALDW ) on Jan. 29 said 10 days of planned maintenance at its Big Spring, Texas, vacuum tower will start this month.

For more detailed information, search Dow Jones Newswires using the code N/REF.

Operator   Refinery    Capacity   Description                    Restart
                       (in 000s
                       bbl/day)
UNPLANNED

CANADA

CARIBBEAN

EAST COAST

Monroe   Trainer       185.0  Restarting FCCU on Feb. 11; unit   Feb. 11
Energy   PA                   shut mid-Dec. for unplanned main-
                              tenance.
GULF COAST

Motiva   Port Arthur   600.0  FCCU shut Feb. 18 for minor re-
         TX                   pair. Restarted as of Feb. 25.

MIDWEST

PBF      Toledo        170.0  FCCU shut by fire on Jan. 30;      N/A
Energy   OH                   other units at reduced rates or
                              on standby for several weeks to
                              facilitate repairs, the company
                              said on Jan. 31

ROCKIES

WEST COAST

Phillips Rodeo          80.0  Unspecified unit shut Feb. 4,
66       CA                   a regulatory filing said. No
                              further detail provided.

Shell    Martinez      165.0  Alkylation unit shut Jan. 10       N/A
Oil Co.  CA                   to repair "pinhole" leak in pro-
                              pane line at the unit's reactors.
                              No restart timing provided.

Valero   Wilmington    135.0  Alkylation unit shut for about
Energy   CA                   two weeks of unplanned maintenance.
                              FCCU taken out of service to
                              facilitate those repairs, the
                              company said on Feb. 5. Maintenance
                              continues, the company said Feb 20.

PLANNED

CANADA

Husky    Saskatchewan         Major turnaround to take place     Spring
Energy                        in spring of 2013. Plant-wide      2013
                              shutdown is planned for
                              inspection and equipment repairs.

Valero   Quebec        100.0  Plant-wide shutdown for turnaround June
Energy                        work will begin in April and con-  2013
                              tinue for nine weeks.

CARIBBEAN

Valero   Aruba                Refinery will be converted to a
                              terminal while the company continues
                              to seek a buyer.

EAST COAST

Hess     Port Reading   70.0  FCCU facility will be closed by     Feb.
Corp.    NJ                   end-Feb. as the company exits the   2013
                              refining business.

Phila-   Philadel-     330.0  Hydrodesulfurization Unit shut     March
delphia  phia, PA             during Feb. 8 week - filing. Re-
Energy                        former shut for maintenance on
                              on Jan. 18 - filing. Other un-
                              specified units are involved
                              in this round of maintenance,
                              under way since mid-January and
                              to take 60 days to complete,
                              traders said in January.

Sunoco   Marcus Hook   190.0  Plant shuttered in December 2011
                              due to poor refining economics
                              will be reopened to process Marcellus
                              shale, the company said.

PBF      Delaware City  182.2 Work will be done on fluid coker
Energy   DE                   during the fourth quarter of 2013.

PBF     Paulsoboro, NJ  160  Crude unit maintenance in Q4 2013
Energy

GULF COAST

Alon     Big Spring     70.0  10 days of work will begin in      Feb.
USA      TX                   February to repair vacuum tower.
                              Diesel hydrotreater catalyst
                              replacement and reformer cata-
                              lyst regeneration will take
                              place at the same time, the company said
                              Jan. 29.

Exxon    Baytown       560.5  Coker unit undergoing planned
Mobil    TX                   maintenance, the company said
                              Jan. 16. The start date and
                              restart timing wasn't provided.

Houston  Houston       268.0  A crude and coker unit are in      March
Refining TX                   early stage of shutdown for        2013
                              turnaround maintenance, the
                              company said on Feb. 1.
                              Throughput reduced by
                              80,000 barrels a day until work
                              concludes within first quarter.

Motiva   Port Arthur   600.0  Scheduled work at main coker
         TX                   unit, a CDU and one of the
                              sulfur plants began Feb 16/17,
                              a person familiar with opera-
                              tions said.

Phillips Sweeny        247.0  Planned maintenance under way
66       Old Ocean,           since Jan. 6 week continues,
         TX                   the co. said on Feb. 20.

Valero   Corpus        200.0  FCC will be shut for six weeks       Feb/Mar
         Christi, TX          turnaround maintenance starting    2013
                              Jan. 18, the company said on
                              Jan. 17.

Valero   Sunray   TX   170.0  Five weeks of work on the crude     May
McKee                         unit to begin in April, the company 2013
                              said on Jan. 29. Work was origi-
                              nally set to begin in March for
                              four weeks.

Valero   Norco         185.0  Hydrocracker project will          1st Q
         LA                   finish in first quarter of 2013    2013
                              and start operating in the
                              second quarter, the company said
                              on Oct. 10.

Valero   Texas City    245.0  FCCU maintenance for eight weeks    March
         TX                   is under way, the company said      2013
                              Jan. 10.

Western  El Paso       122.0  Company will perform turnaround
         TX                   on north side of refinery
                              starting in February.

MIDWEST

BP       Whiting       336.0  Largest of three CDUs will soon    2nd Half
         IN                   shut for replacement, the company  2013
                              said on Oct. 31 as part of major
                              expansion project. Completion on
                              track for second-half 2013.

Husky    Lima          160.0  45 days of major turnaround
                              scheduled in 2014; 70% of units
                              involved. Remaining 30% will
                              undergo major turnaround in 2015,

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  02-26-131159ET
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This article appears in: News Headlines

Referenced Stocks: ALDW, ALJ, CVX, HES, PBF,



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