Today's Refining Hotline Headlines

---

North America
Valero, on January 12, began shutting down four units for 59 days of turnaround maintenance at its 395,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) refinery in Port Arthur, Texas.

PBF Torrance Refining LLC, on January 8, started four weeks of planned maintenance on the 200-ton-per-day Sulfur Recovery Unit, 47,680-BBL/d Hydrogen 4 Unit and 105,000-BBL/d Cat Feed Hydrotreater 25 Unit at its 155,000-BBL/d refinery in Torrance, California.

Pemex TRI continues to operate its 285,000-BBL/d Lazaro Cardenas (Minatitlan), Mexico, refinery at lower rates due to mechanical issues and financial constraints. The 28,000-BBL/d Fluid Catalytic Cracker Unit (FCCU) 1 is offline and might be restarted by late February or early March. The 75,000-BBL/d Primaria 3 (Crude 3) Unit is online, running at approximately 50,000 BBL/d, while the 150,000-BBL/d Combinada Maya (Crude) (U-10000) Unit is operating at 120,000 BBL/d. The remaining downstream units are being kept at approximately 60% of normal capacity.

International
Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) has delayed the restart of the 560 million-cubic-foot-per-day Gas Processing Train 2 (U-32) at its 346,000-BBL/d Mina Al Ahmadi Refinery in Kuwait, due to a fire on January 14. KNPC is assessing the damage and plans for repairs, and the unit is expected to be back online by February 2. All of the refinery's other units are operating at normal throughput.

Petropiar, on January 14, was forced to shut down its 248,000-BBL/d Petropiar Crude Upgrader in Venezuela due to a fire on the 165,000-BBL/d Vacuum Distillation Unit. Inspection work has begun, and a restart date is unknown at this time. Before the fire, the upgrader was processing at about 35% of normal capacity.

Lanaz Bitumen & Oil Refinery Company tentatively expects to start commercial operations on the 20,000-BBL/d Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) 5 and 20,000-BBL/d CDU 6 by July 15 at its 60,000-BBL/d Lanaz Refinery in Iraq. The units have been under construction since February 2017. Separately, Lanaz tentatively expects to begin operations on the 30,000-BBL/d Naphtha Hydrotreater Unit and 8,000-BBL/d Reformer Unit by December 15.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn.