Today's Refining Hotline Headlines

North America
Valero, on January 7, will begin 30 days of planned maintenance on the 54,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) Fluid Catalytic Cracker Unit (FCCU) 61 and 20,000-BBL/d Hydrofluoric Alkylation (HF Alky) 68 Unit at its 80,000-BBL/d refinery in Wilmington, California.

Chevron is still on schedule to perform 30 days of planned maintenance on the 52,000-BBL/d Crude Oil Plant #21 and 8,000-BBL/d Reformer Plant 35 Unit at its 52,000-BBL/d refinery in Salt Lake City, Utah, beginning October 12, 2022.

San Joaquin Refinery Company is still on schedule to perform two weeks of planned maintenance on the 24,300-BBL/d Crude Oil Unit at its 24,300-BBL/d refinery in Bakersfield, California, beginning February 6.

International
Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) continues with a 25-day planned turnaround of the 40,000-BBL/d Delayed Coker (Unit 20 - Train 1) and 78,400-BBL/d Vacuum Re-run (Unit 13 - Train 1) at its 454,000-BBL/d Mina Abdulla Refinery in Kuwait. The restart is expected by January 8.

EP Petroecuador, on December 21, was forced to shut down its entire 110,000-BBL/d refinery in Esmeraldas, Ecuador, due to a shortage of crude oil after the Trans-Ecuadorian Pipeline (SOTE) and OCP pipeline were shut down due to flooding. Current plans are to restart the facility by early to-mid-next week.

PetroChina Karamay Petrochemical Company Limited will perform a 50-day planned plant-wide turnaround at its 80,000-BBL/d Karamay Refinery in China, beginning May 20. Seven major units are involved. The restart is expected by July 8.