Two Processing Units at Recope's Puerto Limon Refinery Back Online

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The topping and LPG units at Recope's Puerto Limon refinery that experienced unplanned shutdowns because of a problem at the refinery's water treatment plant on February 19, 2008, are now online and operating normally. The rest of the processing units remain offline. The two units were the only ones online when a leakage forced the boilers to be shutdown. As a result, the lack of steam had forced the two units to go offline. For more information, see related March 3, 2008, article - Costa Rica's Puerto Limon Refinery Experiences Unplanned Overhaul.

The boilers were restarted four days after the problem occurred, and the topping and LPG units came online after the necessary steam was produced. However, plant authorities said they are still experiencing problems with the crude oil they receive from Venezuela, so the following units are still offline: platforming, thermal cracker, naphtha and kerosene hydrotreaters, Merox and asphalt vacuum. The plant generally processes Venezuelan Mesa 30 crude oil; however, since Venezuela is not selling that type of crude to Recope, most of the processing units proved to be unable to process the latter and had to be shut down. Authorities are negotiating to get another type of crude similar to the Mesa 30 from Venezuela.

The platforming unit, which has been offline for two months because of a compressor problem, is still offline. The thermal cracker, which had to be shut down in early February 2008 because of processing problems of Santa Barbara crude oil, will remain offline until Venezuela starts sending Recope the Mesa 30 crude oil. The asphalt vacuum unit, offline since December 2007, is scheduled to be restarted in April 2008.

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