Pemex Completes Minatitlan Reconfiguration Project

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources Latin America (Cordoba, Argentina)--Mexico's state oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) (Mexico City, Mexico) has completed the construction of new units at its 184,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) General Lazaro Cardenas Refinery in Minatitlan.

The Minatitlan Reconfiguration Project, which was expected to be completed by late March 2011, experienced delays, but was finally completed when the company recently wrapped up construction on the 55,000-BBL/d delayed coker unit and 7,000-BBL/d naphtha hydrotreaters. The new 150,000-BBL/d combined crude/vacuum unit, the 42,000-BBL/d fluid catalytic cracking unit, and the alkylation units were finished in July, and the company performed the oil-in procedures in mid-August.

The Minatitlan refinery processes 70% light crude and 30% Maya crude. The new crude unit will be able to process 100% Maya crude. When the reconfiguration is complete, the refinery will be able to process 70% Maya crude and 30% light crude.

The refinery currently has four primary distillation units: the 25,000-BBL/d Primaria 1; the 25,000-BBL/d Primaria 2; the 75,000-BBL/d Primaria 3 and the 60,000-BBL/d Primaria 5. The design capacity of the refinery is 185,000 BBL/d; however, it is able to process up to 175,000 BBL/d. When the new Primaria 4 unit is fully operational, the total capacity should increase up to 335,000 BBL/d, but the company will stop producing from the two small crude units they have (Primaria 1 and Primaria 2). As a consequence, the new capacity for the refinery will be 285,000 BBL/d. The company expects to process approximately 246,000 BBL/d due to markets conditions.

Pemex also owns and operates five more refineries in Mexico: the Miguel Hidalgo Refinery in Tula, Hidalgo; the Héctor R. Lara Sosa Refinery in Cadereyta, Nuevo León; the Antonio Dovalí Jaime Refinery in Salina Cruz, Oaxaca; the Ing. Antonio M. Amor Refinery in Salamanca, Guanajuato; and the Francisco I. Madero Refinery in Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas.

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