Refinery sales, maintenance, restarts and closures

Closures

Shell’s Montreal refinery will continue production until the end of September. The facility will then be closed and converted in to a terminal, which should be completed by the end of November. The refinery needs approximately 500 people to keep it up and running and approximately 470 of these employees will no longer be required after the conversion.

Maintenance

ConocoPhillips is carrying out planned maintenance at its Borger, Texas refinery. A number of unspecified units have been shutdown at the 153 000 bpd facility for an unspecified time.

Maintenance work at the Minatitlan refinery, Mexico is likely to come to an end this week. Units including the diesel hydrotreater and a reformer have been affected by the planned work. The 185 000 bpd facility is also scheduled for a turnaround at the end of 2010.

Restarts

Valero Energy completed the sale of the Delaware City refinery at the end of last week. The facility is now owned by PBF Energy Partners who are going to restart the facility and employ up to 700 people in the area. The refinery was sold to PBF for US$ 220 million and will carry out US$ 130 million worth of modifications at the plant, which will restart in 2011.

Valero Energy Corp. has said that is unlikely to find buyers for its Aruba refinery that has been on the market for two and a half years. The company is therefore looking for a partner to run the facility with under a joint venture agreement. Valero has also said that it will be able to run the refinery without a partner and may restart the facility (with or without a partner) by the end of this year.

Sales

Total, France has said that it is expecting to close a deal on the sale of its UK Lindsey refinery after the summer. The refinery was put up for sale as Total seeks to cut 500 000 bpd of refining capacity by 2011.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/07062010/refinery_sales_maintenance_restarts_and_closures/