Petroplus to Perform Maintenance on 239,000-Barrel Ingolstadt Refinery in Germany

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Petroplus Holdings AG (VTX:PPHN) is planning to shut down the 28 processing units at the 239,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) Ingolstadt refinery in Germany by the second half of 2010. The refinery is located on a 128-acre site in Ingolstadt, about 80 kilometers north of Munich. Maintenance work will last between 20 and 25 days.

The crude-oil refinery was built and commissioned in 1963 by ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) (Irving, Texas) and acquired by Petroplus at the end of March 2007. The facility is the only refinery that Petroplus owns and operates in Germany. From 2000 to 2003, a new hydrogen plant and catalytic naphtha splitter were implemented in order to reduce sulfur content in fuel and to meet German product standards for gasoline and ultra-low-sulfur diesel, which had been implemented ahead of the 2009 deadline for the Euro II European Auto-Oil II standards. Gasoline, diesel, blended diesel and jet fuel are some of the Ingolstadt refinery's main products.

In June 2008, all of the refinery's processing units went offline as a consequence of a flaring and loss of power that took place in the plant's control system. No injuries or damage were reported. The last planned overhaul was performed in 2005 and lasted 25 days.

Petroplus is the largest independent refiner and wholesaler of petroleum products in Europe. The company focuses on refining and owns and operates seven refineries across Europe: the Coryton refinery on the Thames Estuary in the United Kingdom; Ingolstadt refinery in Ingolstadt, Germany; BRC refinery and APF Antwerp processing facility, both in Antwerp, Belgium; Petit Couronne in Petit Couronne, France; the Cressier refinery in Neuchatel, Switzerland; the Reichstett refinery in Alsace, France; and the Teesside plant in Teesside, United Kingdom. The refineries have a combined processing capacity of approximately 864,000 BBL/d.

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