Today's Refining Hotline Headlines

North America
Marathon is in the process of restarting its 437,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas after it was shut down on January 5 due to freezing weather. Three downstream units have been restarted, and the rest are expected to be back online by the end of the upcoming weekend.

Pasadena Refining is in the process of restarting its 100,000-BBL/d refinery in Pasadena, Texas after it was shut down on January 5 due to freezing weather. The facility is expected to be online in the next 24 hours.

Pemex TRI continues to run its 270,000-BBL/d refinery in Cadereyta, Mexico, at lower rates. The 6,000-BBL/d Hydrofluoric (HF) Alkylation 1 Unit, 25,000-BBL/d Fluid Catalytic Cracker Unit (FCCU) and the 120-ton-per-day Sulfur Recovery Unit (SRU) 5 are offline, and the restart is expected by early to mid-March. The 120,000-BBL/d Combinada 1 (Crude 1) is online and running at 80,000 BBL/d; the 150,000-BBL/d Combinada 2 (Crude 2) is processing at 95,000 BBL/d, while the 65,000-BBL/d FCCU 1 is at 45,000 BBL/d. The rest of the processing units are being kept at approximately 65% of normal capacity.

International
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) continues operating its 760,000-BBL/d Jamnagar SEZ Refinery in India at approximately 92%. The 380,000-BBL/d CDU 1 and 380,000-BBL/d CDU 2 are operating at 89% and 95% capacity, respectively. The units are tentatively expected to resume full throughput by March 15.

Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC), on February 13, started a 40-day planned maintenance shutdown of the 33,000-BBL/d Atmospheric Residue Desulfurization (ARDS) Unit 3 and 33,000-BBL/d ARDS Unit 4 at its 346,000-BBL/d Mina Al Ahmadi Refinery in Kuwait. The restart is expected by March 24. Separately, on February 14, KNPC began a 40-day planned shutdown of the 70,000-BBL/d New Gas Oil HDS and a 30-day planned shutdown of the 40,000-BBL/d Hydrocracker and 77,000-BBL/d Vacuum Rerun Unit 1. The New Gas Oil HDS is expected to restart by March 25, and the Hydrocracker and Vaccum Rerun units by March 15.

Shell Nederland Raffinaderij BV, in mid-February, shut down the 200,000-BBL/d CD 6 (Sour) Unit at its 404,000-BBL/d Pernis Refinery in the Netherlands for a planned maintenance turnaround. The completion is expected in late March.

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