Recope to Start Converting Puerto Limon's Kerosene Hydrotreatment Unit

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Puerto Limon refinery, owned by Costa Rica's state-owned oil company Recope, will begin a planned turnaround on December 15 to convert the kerosene hydrotreater into a diesel hydrotreater.

The asphalt vacuum unit remains offline as a result of issues involving market prices. The visbreaker unit has been offline since May because of problems with the furnace. Recope is replacing damaged equipment with new equipment in order to get the unit back online and running with increased efficiency. For more details, view related July 22, 2008, news article - Recope to Convert Puerto Limon's Kerosene Hydrotreatment Unit to Process Diesel Fuel.

The three-month turnaround, which involves the complete shutdown of all of the refinery's processing units, was initially set to begin on December 1; however, it was delayed until December 15 because of bad weather conditions. Even though the kerosene hydrotreatment unit was scheduled to be restarted by early November to verify whether it was capable of processing without problems, plant authorities were unable to because of heavy rain and the lack of crude oil. The unit remains offline for necessary changes to be implemented in order to begin processing as a diesel hydrotreatment unit by mid-March 2009. The topping and gas concentration units are the only units currently online at the Costa Rican refinery.

View Plant Profile - 1050943
View Turnaround Report - 76072

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