Total Plans Maintenance Shutdowns in France

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Total SA (NYSE:TOT) (Paris, France) will perform several planned maintenance turnarounds at the 331,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) Gonfreville Refinery in France during the remainder of this year and into 2010.

The refinery, located in the city of Gonfreville in the northwest of France, was built in 1933 by Total and is the company's biggest refinery in the country. Gonfreville produces a large range of products such as gas, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), naphtha, kerosene, fuel, solvent, bitumen and lubricants.

Between 2001 and 2006, the refinery carried out a series of upgrades to meet the Auto-Oil European regulations that came into effect in January 2009 to reduce sulfur in fuel to 10 parts per million. In order to accomplish this goal, Technip (OTC:TKPPY) (Paris) has built 5 new units: a 1,568-BBL/d steam methane reformer, a 62,694-BBL/d hydrocracker, two 1,458-BBL/d sulfur recovery units (claus 3 and 4), and a tail gas treatment (Sulfrime) unit as part of a new area called Deep Conversion 3.

In September 2009, one of the bitumen areas of the refinery, Lubes 3, will undergo a planned maintenance shutdown that will last approximately 28 days. The turnaround will affect seven units: two furfural extraction units, a vacuum distillation unit, a propane deasphalting unit, a hydrofinishing unit, a solvent extraction unit and a visbreaker. In September 2010, a 45-non-production-day turnaround will be performed in the continuous catalytic reformer and the gas oil hydrotreater. Under normal conditions, turnarounds at the refinery are performed every 5 years.

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