PDVSA's Cardon Refinery Quickly Recovers from Power Problem

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Petroleos de Venezuela S.A.'s (PDVSA) Cardon refinery at the Paraguana Refining Center in Venezuela experienced a power problem on June 20 that shut down of several units for a few hours.

The 75,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) Crude 2, 70,000-BBL/d Crude 3, 75,000-BBL/d Crude 4, 36,000-BBL/d Hydrodesulfurization, 11,000-BBL/d SF Alkylation 2, TAME (tertiary amyl methyl ether) and MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether) units were offline for about five hours but restarted without problems. The furfural unit remains offline due to tower obstruction. A maintenance team is working to solve the problem by today.

The 295,000-BBL/d refinery is now processing 267,000 BBL/d. The delayed coker, which experienced a problem in its F101 drum in May, remains derated, running at 50% of its normal capacity because of inspections. The unit is expected to reach normal rates by the end of this week. For more details, view related May 8, 2008, article - Cardon Refinery Lowers Rates after Small Fire.

PDVSA authorities have decided to start the maintenance turnaround on the 75,000 BBL/d Crude 2 distillation unit one month ahead of schedule. The turnaround, which was previously planned to be performed on August 1, will begin on July 4. For more details, view related June 25, 2008, article - Cardon Refinery Moves Maintenance Turnaround Forward.

Alkylation 1 has been undergoing maintenance since April. The start date for the expansion work in the fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) to expand the unit's 11,000-ton-per-day capacity to 12,800 tons per day had been delayed from April 7 to May 7. The project was delayed again to July 15 because of a tower installation.

View Plant Profile - 1050749
View Project Report - 69000201
View Turnaround Report - 64382 25937 25936

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