PDVSA Refinery in Curacao Running at Reduced Capacity

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Willemstad Isla refinery, operated by Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA, located in Curacao recently has been running at lower rates. The refinery has a maximum processing capacity of 320,000 barrels per day (BPD).

The Willemstad refinery has been producing 240,000 BPD because the middle conversion and treatment units cannot handle high production levels. The plant is composed of 34 processing units. Thermal Cracker 1 has been offline because of feed stock programming since mid-August 2007. Thermal Cracker 2, which is running at normal rates, will be shut down in October 2008. During this planned turnaround, Thermal Cracker 1 is scheduled to be restarted to replace Thermal Cracker 2. Of the five sulfur-recovery units, only SRU 4 and 5 are running normally. SRU 3 is offline for maintenance and will be restarted the first week of December 2007. SRU 1 and 2 are offline because of lack of feed. The 35-mechanical-day maintenance turnaround in lubes hydrotreatment, methyl dewaxing and furfural extraction, which started on October 4, 2007, is already finished, and these units, along with the other processing units from distillation and hydrotreatment, are online and running without inconveniences.

PDVSA also owns the Paraguana refining center (Centro de Refinacion Paraguana), one of the largest refining centers in the world and Venezuela's main source of gasoline exports that is composed of the Cardon and Amuay refineries. Cardon refinery, in Flacon state (Venezuela), has a 295,000-barrel-per-day production capacity and 30 processing units.

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