Petrobras' Lubnor Refinery Reschedules Maintenance Shutdowns

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Petrobras' (NYSE:PBR) Lubnor refinery, located in Fortaleza in the Brazilian state of Ceara, decided to postpone maintenance shutdowns from January to August 2009. The turnarounds will be performed in the naphthenic lubricant, lubricant hydrotreatment, hydrogen generation, sour water, water treatment and natural gas treatment-UPGN units. Plant authorities had to reschedule the turnarounds because of a delay in the bidding process for the mounting of a substation chimney, since the cost was higher than expected. The vacuum unit is the only unit at the refinery that will not be shut down; it will have its planned maintenance shutdown in April 2010.

The refinery began operating in 1966 under the name of ASFOR (Fortaleza Asphalt Fabric). Today, the 6,000-barrel-per-day refinery is known as Lubnor and produces asphalt, lube oil, natural gas, diesel and fuel oil.

The refinery is working on a project to build a new lubricant unit. The basic engineering is being carried out by Cenpes (Petrobras' research center) and bidding for the necessary equipment is taking place. Construction is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2009 and last 28 months.

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