Petrobras Energia's San Lorenzo Refinery Reduces Processing Capacity

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The 52,500-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) San Lorenzo Refinery, owned by Petrobras subsidiary Petrobras Energia (NYSE:PZE) (Buenos Aires, Argentina), was forced to curb production rates by 25% for three weeks after plant officials decided to shut down the Topping 3 unit on March 2 because of a lack of crude oil supply. The shortage is attributed to a budget constraint caused by the global financial crisis. The refinery is expected to restart the unit and resume normal operation by March 20.

The refinery is planning to shut down the 12,000-BBL/d Vacuum 1, 22,000-BBL/d Topping 2 and the 3,000-BBL/d thermal cracking units in August 2010 to change the Vacuum 1 condensers. The refinery is also planning to shut down all of the processing units in 2012. In November 2008, the refinery had moved a planned maintenance shutdown forward in the Topping 3 unit because of economic issues.

Because of the issues at the San Lorenzo Refinery, Petrobras Energia has postponed planned maintenance at the Bahia Blanca Refinery from March 1 to April 15. The Bahia Blanca facility will undergo maintenance of the reformer, isomerization, LPG and HT-light naphtha units.

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