Motiva halts coker unit at Port Arthur refinery for repairs – Reuters
US refiner Motiva Enterprise has shut a 110,000 b/d coker unit (DCU-2) at its Port Arthur refinery to conduct repair of an overhead pipeline, Reuters reports citing market sources.
PHOTO: Motiva's Port Arthur refinery in Texas City, US. Motiva
Motiva says the 110,000 b/d coker unit will be shut for at least two weeks for repairs.
Motiva’s 630,000 b/d nameplate capacity Port Arthur refinery in Texas City also produces diesel and gasoil, which can be directly consumed as fuel by vessels.
The shutdown of the coker units is likely to limit the Port Arthur refinery’s residual oil intake. A coker unit typically converts lower-value heavy residual oil such as vacuum residue and FCC slurry sourced from vacuum distillate units into higher-value products like naphtha and diesel.
The process helps the refinery to maximise yield and eliminates wastage of low-value residual oil, and the ongoing coker unit maintenance could by extension dent some of the Gulf Coast region's demand for residual fuel oil.
The refinery also plans to conduct scheduled maintenance for 40 days of its 105,000 b/d diesel-producing hydrocracker unit (HSC-2) and 54,000 b/d coker unit (DCU-1) once the DCU-2 overhead pipeline repair work is completed, Reuters reports.
By Nithin Chandran
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