Today's Refining Hotline Headlines

North America
Houston Refining LP, on September 26, experienced an unplanned shutdown of the 90,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) Fluid Catalytic Cracker Unit (FCCU) 732 at its 268,000-BBL/d refinery in Houston, Texas. The unit is expected to take approximately 10 days to restart.

International
Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) continues to keep the 85,000-BBL/d Crude 1, 120,000-BBL/d Crude 2, 80,000-BBL/d FCCU and other processing units online at reduced rates at its 625,000-BBL/d Amuay Refinery in Venezuela, due to recurrent mechanical issues and financial constraints. The 180,000-BBL/d Crude 5 and 120,000-BBL/d Crude 3 units are offline, and planned repairs and an ongoing revamp on the Crude 3 and Vacuum 3 units are to continue throughout the year. The refinery is currently processing a total of 155,000 BBL/d, while the FCCU is processing 63,000 BBL/d due to compressor issues. Planned repairs on the FCCU remain delayed until November.

PKN Orlen SA, on September 27, experienced a fire at its 277,808-BBL/d Plock Refinery in Poland, in a section of the plant currently shut down for maintenance. There was no impact on other sections of the refinery, where production continues as normal, but the affected section remains shut. The exact impact on the restart date of individual units is currently unknown.

Total Refining & Chemicals Feyzin has shut down its 117,000-BBL/d Feyzin Refinery in France, due to a leak at the 29,000-BBL/d FCCU. The restart is expected in mid-October.

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