Units of Curaçao Refinery Remain Offline After Power Outage

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Venezuela's state-owned PDVSA was forced to shut down all processing units at the 325,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) Willemstad Isla refinery in Curaçao because of an unexpected power outage on August 27.

The 160,000-BBL/d Crude 3 and 48,000-BBL/d Feed Crack 2 units were restarted on August 28, followed by Thermal Cracker 2, High Vacuum 7 and the 40,000-BBL/d Crude 2B units. The 52,000-BBL/d fluid catalytic converter remains offline. Repair and cleaning work is currently being performed to remove the catalyst from the fractionator, heat exchangers and slide valves. As a consequence the 45,000-BBL/d Crude 2A unit, 8,000-BBL/d Feed Crack 1 unit and Alky unit are also offline. Plant authorities estimate that repairs should be complete September 2.

The refinery was affected by another power outage on April 27, 2009, which at that time forced the processing units to be kept offline for several days. For more details, view related May 1, 2009, article - Power Outage Shuts Down PDVSA's Willemstad Isla Refinery. Four power outages halted the refinery's production in 2008. The first one occurred on April 9 as several units from the hydrotreatment operation area were reaching normal production rates after a 50-day planned maintenance shutdown. For more details, view related April 10, 2008, article - Power Outage Forces All Units Offline at PDVSA's Willemstad Isla Refinery. The second outage occurred as detailed in April 14, 2008, news article - PDVSA's Willemstad Isla Refinery Experiencing Another Power Outage. The third and fourth occurrences, which occurred December 2008, delayed the completion of ongoing turnarounds. For more details, view related January 12, 2009, article - Power Outage Delays Maintenance Turnarounds at PDVSA's Willemstad Isla Refinery.

The 20,000-BBL/d Platformer will be shutdown in early October for catalyst regeneration, along with the Crude 3 and Naphtha Hydrotreater units, for approximately two weeks. During this time, Thermal Cracker 1 will be restarted as a Crude Distiller. Once the reformer's turnaround work is complete and the units are back online, maintenance repairs in the Thermal Cracker 2 will begin. While the turnaround in this unit is performed, Thermal Cracker 1 will be modified to resume normal functions.

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