Repsol YPF Restarts Temporarily Idle Polyethylene Unit

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Repsol Petroquimica, the petrochemical subsidiary owned by Repsol YPF SA (NYSE:REP) (Madrid, Spain), shut down the 150,000-metric-ton-per-year, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) unit at the Tarragona petrochemical complex located in Tarragona province in eastern Spain for 18 days due to poor market conditions.

A production surplus and a low product demand affected the plant's operations, which resumed successfully August 28. The unit is expected to run at normal rates, and the next planned maintenance turnaround is set for August 2010. The previous maintenance shutdown of the unit took place in the first quarter of 2009 and lasted a week, during which the unit's reactor's Bingham pump was repaired.

Repsol YPF's refining facility, also located in Tarragona, has a 1.53 billion, 3,000-pound-per-year ethylene unit that feeds the company's petrochemical complex. This processing unit underwent a 57-day maintenance turnaround in 2008. During this shutdown, which was to perform major repairs and cleaning, there was an explosion that did not affect other units in the refinery and was rapidly controlled by firefighters and the plant's personnel, who proceeded to remediate the damages. At the moment, this ethylene-producing unit, which has 14 furnaces, is processing without any inconveniences. The next planned maintenance turnaround is to be carried out in October 2013.

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