FCCU at El Palito Refinery Resumes Activities

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--On January 12, 2008, the fluid catalytic cat cracker unit (FCCU) at the 127,000-barrel-per-day (BPD) El Palito refinery (Carabobo state, Venezuela) suffered a mechanical failure as a result of a power outage. The outage caused the unit, as well as other related units, to stop processing. An analysis revealed that the FCCU had only suffered minor damage that is expected to be fixed within 10 days. For more details, view related January 21, 2008, article -- El Palito Refinery in Venezuela Experiences FCCU Mechanical Failure.

After the maintenance work in the FCCU was completed, this unit, as well as the affected units in the conversion and treatment area, resumed operations on January 21, 2008, within the expected time frame. The remaining units in the plant were not affected by the outage and were able to continue their activities without inconveniences. During the period of time these units were not processing the BTX Unit (2,000 barrels per day), which underwent a preventive turnaround that started on the first days of January and lasted 10 days. The shutdown did not halt the unit's processing activities, and modifications were made to the unit to increase the unit's production 20% to meet market demand. There was not lack of fuel neither in the internal market nor the external one, according to PDVSA's authorities' statements.

View Plant Profile - 1027272

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading marketing information services company for the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy-related markets throughout the world. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, IIR provides accurate and timely intelligence featuring plant and project information databases, focused market databases, industry forecasting, key industry contacts, industry and territorial map products, direct marketing services and applications, and daily industry news.