Flint Hills Revamps Corpus Christi Texas Refinery to Produce New Diesel Specification

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Flint Hills Resources LP, a wholly-owned company of Koch Industries, Incorporated (Wichita, Kansas), is in the midst of revamping its Corpus Christi, Texas refinery to meet the new diesel mandate required by the EPA. The new mandate requires refiners to lower the sulfur content in highway use (on road) diesel fuels to fifteen parts per million by June 2006, although the EPA has allowed some flexibility to comply, which could delay the date of implementation.

The project includes revamps to existing diesel and kerosene hydrotreaters to be executed in two phases. The first phase involves minor modifications to the diesel hydrotreating unit, which commenced work in October and is scheduled to be complete in November. The second phase entails shutting down the kerosene hydrotreater in January for one month to perform all of the necessary modifications. Jacobs Engineering Group, Incorporated (NYSE:JEC) (Pasadena, California) is providing engineering and construction management services.

There is one drawback to this project. The volume of highway diesel that the plant can produce will be reduced. The refinery currently produces about 60,000 barrels per day of highway diesel fuel. After the revamp, that figure will be reduced to 40,000 barrels per day, because the revamp does not include the treatment of the light cycle oil stream. Instead, this stream will be blended into the home heating oil blending pool, which has a higher sulfur limit at 5,000 parts per million. Earlier plans included the treatment of light cycle oil, but the project was scaled back due to the high capital investment needed.

Flint Hills Resources’ refinery located in Corpus Christi, Texas processes 300,000 barrels per day of crude oil and employs over 900. The refinery supplies the Corpus Christi, Austin, San Antonio, Waco and Dallas/Fort Worth areas with products. Formerly known as Koch Petroleum Group, L.P., Flint Hills Resources LP was established in January 2002. The company takes its name from the Flint Hills of Kansas, a scenic and culturally rich part of the Great Plains. The name honors Fred Chase Koch, co-founder of what is now Koch Industries, who loved the Flint Hills and established his first ranch there in the 1940’s.

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