Today's Refining Hotline Headlines

North America
Shell, on January 20, completed the sale of its share of the 340,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) refinery in Deer Park, Texas to Pemex (Petroleos Mexicanos SA de CV). The facility was previously jointly owned by both companies. It is operated by Deer Park Refining LP.

Valero is in the process of restarting the 55,000-BBL/d Fluid Catalytic Cracker Unit (FCCU) at its 175,000-BBL/d McKee Refinery in Sunray, Texas, after it was shut down January 18 for mechanical repairs. The unit should be restarted this week.

International
Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) has rescheduled a 45-day planned maintenance shutdown of the 200,000-BBL/d Crude Distillation Unit 4 at its 346,000-BBL/d Mina Al Ahmadi Refinery in Kuwait. The turnaround now will begin by June 1, with the restart expected by July 15.

NNPC continues with a planned plant-wide major maintenance turnaround for rehabilitation work, which began December 15, at its 210,000-BBL/d Port Harcourt Refinery in Nigeria. The restart is tentatively expected by July 2025.

PDVSA's 140,000-BBL/d refinery in El Palito, Venezuela is online but running at lower rates due to financial constraints and recurrent power issues. The 140,000-BBL/d lone crude unit is running at 71,000 BBL/d, the 70,000-BBL/d FCCU at 28,000 BBL/d, the 9,000-BBLd/ Reformer (PTR) at 4,000 BBL/d, and the remaining processing units are running at 45% capacity.

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