Recope Restarts Refinery in Costa Rica after Unplanned Overhaul

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Recope’s Puerto Limon refinery in Costa Rica has restarted operations of two of nine processing units after the overhaul on August 15, 2007, when a key pump in topping stopped working. The rest of the units remain offline; however, they are scheduled to be restarted this weekend.

A planned maintenance shutdown in topping and thermal cracking unit was scheduled to start August 17, 2007; however, the pump damage brought about the unexpected shutdown of the unit August 15. Refinery authorities were forced to shutdown thermal cracker, LPG, platforming, asphalt vacuum, kerosene and naphtha hydrotreater, wastewater treatment and also Merox units. For more information, view September 3, 2007, news article - Extended Unplanned Overhaul at Recope’s Puerto Limon Refinery in Costa Rica.

The restarting of the asphalt vacuum unit, which was shut down August 20, 2007, was performed September 8, 2007. The start-up in topping, which was scheduled to take place September 8, 2007, was moved forward to September 13 because of a delay on the change of the furnace refractory and its dry-up. Minor maintenance, such as change of piping in the flare and also equipment inspection in the gas concentration unit, has been performed. Cleaning in thermal cracker is finished, and the unit is to be restarted along with LPG, platforming, kerosene, naphtha hydrotreaters and Merox during the weekend. According to Puerto Limon refinery’s main authorities, all of the plant’s processing units are to run normally by September 17, 2007.

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