Most Units Online at PDVSA's Willemstad Isla Refinery in Curacao

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Willemstad Isla refinery, operated by Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA in Curacao, was scheduled to restart its sulfur recovery unit (SRU) 3 on January 28, 2008. The unit had been offline since mid-October 2007. Only four of the 34 processing units are currently offline.

PDVSA also owns the Paraguana refining center (Centro de Refinacion Paraguana), one of the largest refining centers in the world and Venezuela's main source of gasoline exports that is composed of the Cardon and Amuay refineries. Cardon refinery, in Falcon state, Venezuela, has a 295,000-barrel-per-day (BPD) production capacity and 30 processing units.

Even though the Isla refinery has a maximum processing capacity of 320,000 (BPD), it has been running at lower rates, producing 240,000 BPD because the middle conversion and treatment units cannot handle high production levels. For details, view related November 27, 2007, article - PDVSA Refinery in Curacao Running at Reduced Capacity.

Maintenance work in SRU 3 was performed last year, but the unit remained on standby mode because of feedstock programming. During the first two weeks of January, a maintenance team worked on the unit to solve a problem in its rotor. The latter is in the start-up process, and authorities expect to have it online by February 2, 2008. SRU 4 is expected to be shutdown as planned for a 12-mechanical-day turnaround. SRU 1 is completely offline. The planned shutdown in SRU 2, which had started early December 2007, was completed, and the unit is already on standby mode to be used if problems in the online sulfur recovery units occur. Maintenance work in the currently online SRU 5 will be performed after SRU 4 is restarted by February 14, 2008.

A planned maintenance and cleaning shutdown in Willemstad Isla HDX Complex is scheduled to begin on February 8, 2008, and last 30 mechanical days. The units are expected to be running at normal rates by March 20, 2008. This planned turnaround involves most of the units from the HDX Complex: platforming, naphtha hydrotreatment, polymerization plant, PSA/hydrogen purification, hydrogen, lubes hydrotreatment and tail gas. For more details, see related January 22, 2008, article - Willemstad Isla Refinery Maintenance Scheduled.

A 12-mechanical-day planned turnaround in thermal cracker 2 is also expected to be carried out in October 2008 to perform a traditional decoking process and inspection on its furnace. Thermal cracker 1, which has been offline since September 2007 because of feed stock programming, will be restarted in the second week of October to replace thermal cracker 2 while its turnaround is performed. HV6 is still on standby mode since its last turnaround in July 2007, and it is expected to be restarted if a planned or unplanned shutdown in the currently online HV7 unit is performed.

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