ExxonMobil's Fos-sur-Mer Refinery in France Set for Overhaul

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) (Irving, Texas) will perform a planned overhaul at the 116,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) Fos-Sur-mer Refinery in the first quarter of 2011.

In January 2011, the refinery will undergo a maintenance turnaround that will concern the two areas of the refinery: the Conversion Area, which has five units, and the Distillation Area, which has seven units. The shutdown will entail mostly cleaning and inspection, and will keep units offline for a period of 49 non-production days.

Under normal conditions, overhauls at the refinery are performed every six years; in January, however, units were shut down for 22 non-production days for a minor-inspection turnaround.

The refinery is located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Region, near the city of Marceille. Created in 1965, the plant produces a large range of products, such as gas oil, naphtha, lubricants and propylene for the adjacent petrochemical site. The complex feeds from the Fos-Sur-Mer pipeline, which supplies several refineries in France, Switzerland and Germany.

ExxonMobil also leads the 230,000-BBL/d Gravenchon Refinery at the Haute Normandie region. Since 2001, the company has upgraded its two French refineries to meet the European Auto Oil regulations, which came into effect in January 2005, to reduce sulphur in fuel to 50 parts per million.

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