MOSCOW (MRC) -- PBF Energy restarted the cat feed hydrotreater at its 190,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Chalmette, Louisiana refinery, reported Reuters with reference to sources familiar with plant operations.
PBF spokesman Michael Karlovich declined to comment.
The 45,000-bpd cat feed hydrotreater was shut on Oct. 7 for a catalyst change, the sources said. The catalyst change ran about a week over the scheduled time for completion.
Hydrotreaters remove sulfur from motor fuels in compliance with US environmental rules.
As MRC wrote before, PBF continues to raise the production level on the 10,000-bpd Coker 1 that the company restarted on 9-10 November 2019 for the first time in nine years. The coker was idled in 2010 after an economic recession drove down demand for motor fuels. At the time, the refinery was a joint venture between Exxon Mobil Corp and Petroleos de Venezuela SA, Venezuela’s national oil company. PBF announced plans to restart the coker in 2018 and said in October the restart was under way.
As MRC informed before, in September 2019, ExxonMobil announced plans to spend GBP140 million over the next two years in an additional investment program at its Fife ethylene plant (UK), which has a capacity of more than 800,000 t/y.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,589,580 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 976,790 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
PBF Energy Inc. is a petroleum refiner and supplier of unbranded transportation fuels, heating oils, lubricants, petrochemical feedstocks, and other petroleum products. Headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, the company's refineries include facilities in Chalmette, Louisiana, Toledo, Ohio, Port of Paulsboro in Gibbstown, New Jersey, the Delaware City Refinery in Delaware City, and the former ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance, California. PBF produces a range of products including gasoline, ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD), heating oil, jet fuel, lubricants, petrochemicals and asphalt.
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