Workers at Cenovus Energy Incorporated's Toledo refinery in Ohio, US, hope to restart the facility's 110 000 bpd crude 1 sour unit this week, followed by the sequential start-up of the rest of the facility in the upcoming week. The 160 000 bpd refinery has undergone extensive repairs, following a fire in September 2022.
The refinery was previously expected to be fully online in late May 2023.
"It's not uncommon for restarts from unplanned issues to take several tries before the units are back to full operating rates" said Hillary Stevenson, Senior Director of Energy Market Intelligence at IIR Energy. Industrial Info continues to closely monitor the plant restart for updates.
Cenovus has already restarted a portion of its plant, including the 50 000 bpd crude/vac 2 (sweet), 35 000 bpd isocracker, 6500 bpd delayed coker 2 (G-Zone), 40 000 bpd gasoline HT (Train A) and supporting units.
Cenovus previously owned 50% of the refinery, but now owns 100% after acquiring the remaining stake from BP for approximately US$370 million. The transaction, which closed in February 2023, also included a multi-year product supply agreement between the two companies.
With the acquisition, Cenovus' total refining capacity is 740 000 bpd.
The 20 September 2022 refinery fire took the lives of two employees. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Refining Plant Database can see a profile for the Toledo refinery.
Cenovus' 50 000 bpd Superior refinery in Superior, Wisconsin, US, also was restarted this spring after being down for five years due to an explosion and fire. The facility underwent a substantial rebuild and upgrade. The Wisconsin facility had been owned by Husky Energy before Cenovus acquired the refinery in 2021.