Valero Works to Restart Units at Aruba Refinery

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO) (San Antonio, Texas) had to shut down the Visbreaker and Hydrogen 1 units this week at the company's Saint Nicholas refinery in Aruba. Furthermore, the 135,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) Crude 7 unit is currently de-rated due to fractionator problems and salt desalting accumulation in its main tower. The whole refinery is processing 170,000 bpd.

The Crude unit has experienced problems since July 3, which prevented the unit from processing at normal capacity. For more details, view related July 21 2008, article - Crude Unit at Valero's Aruba Refinery Unable to Reach Normal Rates. Until July 24, the unit remained processing 100,000 barrels per day; however, further inconveniences occurred and the plant is unable to process more than 70,000 BBL/d, half of its normal capacity. A maintenance team is already working on the unit to bypass the fractionator. Plant officials stated that the unit will be processing 100,000 bpd in approximately a week.

The 42,000 BBL/d Visbreaker unit had to be shut down on July 22, due to a problem in its main tower and fissure issues. It will remain offline for three more weeks. The Hydrogen 1 unit went offline on July 23, due to fissure issues. It is to be restarted by July 30 3008. Hydrogen 2 and 3 remain online. The 35,000 BBL/d Delayed Coker 1 is currently de-rated processing 15,000 BBL/d because furnace pigging in one of its furnaces is being performed; once it is completed the unit will remain de-rated so as to perform furnace pigging in the other unit's furnace as well. Maintenance work in both furnaces is to be completed by August 1, 2008, enabling the plant to return to normal rates. The same work in the 35,000 BBL/d Delayed Coker 2 will be carried out during the first week of August.

As of July 25, 2008, the refinery is processing 170,000 bpd; it will be processing 190,000 BBL/d once works in the C7, delayed coker 1 & 2 are completed. Visbreaker and Hydrogen 1 are the only offline units at the refinery; the remaining ones are currently online.

View Plant Profile - 1020148

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.