By Erwin Seba
HOUSTON (Reuters) -Mexico’s national oil company Pemex completed the shutdown of multiple units at its 312,500-barrel-per-day Deer Park, Texas, refinery on Thursday to begin a multi-unit overhaul, people familiar with plant operations said.
The refinery’s 270,000-bpd DU-2 crude distillation unit (CDU), the larger of two at the refinery, is shut for the planned overhaul that will last about 60 days, the sources said.
A Pemex spokesperson did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Pemex calls the overhaul “the Big Block Turnaround” because it involves the large CDU and the 70,000-bpd fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU), 70,000-bpd diesel-producing hydrocracking unit (HCU) and 92,000-bpd coker along with other units, sources said.
DU-2 is the larger of two CDUs breaking down crude oil into feedstocks for all other units at the refinery. The small CDU, the 70,000-bpd DU-1, will remain in operation while DU-2 is down for the overhaul.
The FCCU, HCU and coker are all supplied with feedstock by DU-2.
FCCUs use a catalyst under high heat and pressure to convert gas oil into unfinished gasoline.
HCUs use a catalyst under high heat and pressure in the presence of hydrogen to convert gas oil into gasoline.
Cokers break down gunky, tar-like residual crude oil into either motor fuel feedstocks or petroleum coke, which can substitute for coal.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Mark Porter and Chris Reese)
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