North American maintenance update

Canada

Chevron has identified a source in the ongoing oil seep at its North Burnaby refinery. The leak, the source of which has been eluding workers since last April, appears to be stemming from a problem in the underground sewer system.

New Jersey

PBF Energy LLC has reported emissions after a compressor tripped at its 180 000 bpd refinery in Paulsboro on 26 February.

Texas

Royal Dutch Shell Plc has reported a release of an unknown amount of benzene at its Deer Park refinery and chemical plant, based 34 km southeast of Houston. The equipment failure on a distilling unit, which was said to cause the problem, has since been repaired.

ConocoPhillips has restarted a unit at its joint venture refinery in Borger after it was shut down on 25 February for unplanned repairs. The gasoline producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit resumed operations at the 146 000 bpd refinery on February 27.

Wyoming

Frontier Oil will begin planned work on its 47 000 bpd refinery in Cheyenne in late March. Maintenance on the gasoline making fluid catalytic cracking unit and alkylation unit is expected to run into early April.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/28022011/north_american_maintenance_update/