PDVSA's Amuay Refinery Units Go Offline

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Petroleos de Venezuela S.A.'s (PDVSA) Amuay refinery at the Paraguana Refining Center in Venezuela experienced problems in the Hydrogen and Crude units, forcing both of them to go offline on August 24. The 640,000-barrel-per day (BBL/d) refinery is currently processing about 420,000 BBL/d.

At the Paraguana Refining Center, the Crude 2 unit at the Amuay refinery went offline on July 3 along with the Vacuum 2 unit after a problem arose in the cooling system that affected the unit's valves. Maintenance teams were able to restart the unit on the same day and resume operation on July 4. For more details view related July 7, 2008, article - PDVSA Experiences More Mechanical Failures at Cardon, Amuay Refineries.

Crude 2 was shut down this week due to leakage in its tubular equipment. A maintenance team is currently dismantling the damaged parts so as to begin repair work; the unit's restart is scheduled in approximately one week. The damaged tubular equipment E-1 and E-7 in the Hydrogen 1 unit have already been repaired; however, the unit remains offline due to a delay with the saddle installation. Plant authorities expect to have the unit running by August 31.

The planned 28-mechanical-day maintenance work in Sulfur Recovery Unit 2 began on August 20; the unit should be restarted by mid-September. As of today, Crude 2, SRU2 and Hydrogen 1 are the only offline units at Amuay refinery.

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