Recope's Puerto Limon Refinery Continues Planned Overhaul

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Puerto Limon refinery, owned by Costa Rica's state-owned oil company Recope, began a planned turnaround on December 30 to convert its kerosene hydrotreater into a diesel hydrotreater.

The asphalt vacuum unit remains offline as a result of issues involving market prices. The visbreaker unit has been offline since May because of problems with the furnace. Recope is replacing damaged equipment with new equipment in order to get the unit back online and running with increased efficiency. For more details, view related July 22, 2008, news article - Recope to Convert Puerto Limon's Kerosene Hydrotreatment Unit to Process Diesel Fuel.

Even though the kerosene hydrotreatment unit was scheduled to be restarted by early November to verify whether it was capable of processing normally, plant authorities were unable to because of heavy rain and the lack of crude oil. The topping and gas concentration units are the only units currently online at the Costa Rican refinery. For more details view related December 10, 2008, news article - Recope to Start Converting Puerto Limon's Kerosene Hydrotreatment Unit.

The three-month turnaround, which involves the complete shutdown of all of the refinery's processing units, was initially set to begin on December 1 but was delayed because of bad weather conditions and a crude oil shipment delay. The topping and gas concentration units, which were the only units online, were shut down on December 30. Maintenance work began on January 5. Plant officials said that all of the processing units will be kept offline until mid-April.

View Plant Profile - 1050943
View Turnaround Report - 76072

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