Cartagena Refinery in Spain Halts Production Due to Economic Issues

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The 100,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) Cartagena Refinery, owned by Repsol YPF SA (NYSE:REP) (Madrid, Spain), was forced to shut down units from the Fuels Area because of poor margins.

In September, the Fuels Area of the refinery had to be shut down due to low refining margins, and it is expected to remain as such until the end of November or until the refining margins are recovered.

The refinery is divided into the Fuels Area and the Lubes Area; the Lubes Area was kept online. This shutdown differs from the one in mid-April that lasted approximately two and a half months, when the company closed the entire refinery because of low economic margins. For more details, see related July 8, 2009, article - Repsol Works to Restart Units at Spain's Cartagena Refinery.

Separately, the 100,000-BBL/d Crude Unit that belongs to the Fuels Area was shut down in September along with the other units from the area, but this unit was restarted last October 10, mainly due to residue production, which is to supply the units from Lubes area which, as mentioned before, are still online. The Crude Unit will halt production again in early November for furnace work and will remain offline until the end of that month.

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