Repsol's Puertollano Refinery Undergoing Maintenance Shutdown

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Repsol YPF SA's (NYSE:REP) (Madrid, Spain) 166,100-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) Puertollano Refinery (Puertollano, Spain) is performing a minor maintenance shutdown at its South Conversion Area.

The 34,000-BBL/d Mild Hydrocracker Unit (MHC), the 661-A SRU and 661-B SRU located in the South Conversion Area have been shut down since September 28. The units are expected to be offline for about 15 days, mainly because the hydrogen plant in the refinery, which belongs to Air Liquide (EPA:AI) (Paris, France), is undergoing its two-year cycle maintenance shutdown. Owing to the Air Liquide turnaround, the refinery's maintenance team will perform general maintenance and cleaning in the MHC and SRU units.

Additionally, the Conversion Area is divided into two subareas: North Conversion and South Conversion. These areas are completely shut down every four years. The refinery's last major event was in 2007; therefore, authorities expect to perform the next shutdown in 2011. The Conversion Area is composed of several units, such as the 24,100-BBL/d FCCU, the Vacuum 2, the Delayed Coker and the Alkylation unit, among others.

Puertollano Refinery underwent a series of maintenance shutdowns during this year. The Petrochemical Area of the refinery had a planned turnaround last March, which lasted 36 non-production days. During this downtime, maintenance was performed in the Ethylene Cracker and the Olefins and Benzene units. Additionally, a planned shutdown took place in the Refinery 1 and Refinery 2 areas in May 2009, which involved some units such as the 60,400-BBL/d Crude 1, the 8,300-BBL/d Reforming 2 and the Amine 1.

Separately, authorities decided to halt the 60,400-BBL/d Crude 1 Unit last August. The unit remains offline due to poor demand. It is unknown when it will resume operations.

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