MOSCOW (MRC) -- Valero Energy Corp. shut the large crude distillation unit and a coking unit on Monday night at the 335 Mbpd Port Arthur, Texas, refinery as part of an ongoing plant-wide overhaul, said Reuters, citing sources familiar with plant operations.
The 268 Mbpd AVU-146 CDU is scheduled to be shut for four weeks, while the 100 Mbpd coker is scheduled to be shut until late October, the sources said.
During the overhaul, which began in late August, the refinery's two crude distillation units, a hydrocracker, a coker and a reformer among other units are scheduled to be shut for planned work. Gasoline and diesel production are planned to be reduced, but not shut down, sources told Reuters in June.
Crude distillation units do the initial refining of crude oil coming into the refinery and provide feedstock for all other units. Cokers refine residual crude oil into motor fuel feedstock or petroleum coke, a substitute for coal.
As MRC informed earlier, Valero Energy Corp.’s previously-announced USD700 million methanol plant, planned at its existing St. Charles Parish, LA, facility, was shelved indefinitely in March 2016.
Valero Energy Corporation is a Fortune 500 international manufacturer and a marketer of transportation fuels, other petrochemical products, and power. It is based in San Antonio, Texas, United States. The company owns and operates 16 refineries throughout the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and the Caribbean with a combined throughput capacity of approximately 3 million barrels (480,000 m3) per day, 10 ethanol plants with a combined production capacity of 1.2 billion US gallons (4,500,000 m3) per year, and a 50 megawatt wind farm.
MRC