San Nicolas Refinery in Aruba Shuts Down after Power Outage

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Valero Energy Corporation's San Nicolas refinery in Aruba, which has 21 processing units and a total production capacity of 275,000 barrels per day, underwent an overhaul on January 8, 2008. A power outage after a malfunction of the refinery's power plant prompted the overhaul. The security protocol was followed, and the steam, air and power sources were secured, and the process to resume operation of all the units began the next day.

The first unit to restart was the C7, atmospheric distillation unit, and the other units were scheduled to follow in sequence so as to have the whole plant processing within 10 days. However, on January 9, while performing the restart process of the C6 Fractioning Unit, which processes 80,000 barrels per day, there was an explosion that seriously damaged the facility. Authorities are still evaluating the severity of the damage to determine how long it will take to repair the C6; in the meantime, C7 will compensate for C6. The remaining units are still in the process to resume operations and are expected to be back online within the expected time frame.

In October 2007, Valero's refinery underwent another power outage that brought about a problem in the interconnection of the refinery's power plant and the power substation, causing all of the units to shut down for almost a month. For more details, view related October 10, 2007, article -- Power Outage Shuts Down Processing Units at San Nicolas Refinery in Aruba.

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