LyondellBasell begins restart of Houston Refinery crude unit

19 May 2010 22:07  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--LyondellBasell on Wednesday began to restart a crude distillation unit (CDU) at its 268,000 bbl/day Houston Refinery in Texas and said operations could resume as early as Thursday.

The unit being restarted had been idled for unscheduled maintenance and was not affected by a Monday fire. That fire led to the shutdown of the refinery's other CDU, an essential unit to initially process crude oil.

“We expect to have feed into the unit as early as Thursday,” said company spokesman David Harpole.

Meanwhile, Lyondell was continuing to assess fire damage, Harpole said.

Harpole said that it was still too early to project the restart of that unit, but that a damage assessment could come as early as Thursday.

Lyondell said on Tuesday that it was continuing to produce gasoline in the absence of the CDUs, but not at full rates. The refinery had conversion units that could produce limited amounts of gasoline and fuel products using other intermediates and feedstocks at the refinery, the company said.

The Houston Refinery is one of North America’s largest refineries processing heavy, high-sulphur crude oil. The refinery turns the crude into heating oil, jet fuel, olefins feedstocks, aromatics, lubricants and petroleum coke, according to LyondellBasell's website.

Additional reporting by Ryan Hickman

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By: Ben DuBose
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