Nearly two weeks since a fire erupted in its 502,500-barrel-per-day Baton Rouge refinery, ExxonMobil Corp. plans to restart the large crude distillation unit and a coker at the facility this week, sources familiar with plant operations told Reuters today.
The PSLA 10 crude distillation unit (which produces 240,000 barrels per day) and the coker (which produces 50,000) were shut Feb. 12 following the natural gas pipeline fire that idled most of the production units at the refinery, according to the unnamed sources. However, if all goes as planned, both could restart as early as the middle of this week.
ExxonMobil spokesman Jeremy Eikenberry reportedly said operations were continuing at the Baton Rouge refinery and adjoining chemical plant but declined to discuss the status of individual units. ExxonMobil Baton Rouge representatives confirmed Eikenberry’s statement to Daily Report, but again declined to further elaborate on specific units.Â
Three of the refinery’s four CDUs—which do the primary breakdown of crude oil into the hydrocarbon feedstocks that eventually make motor fuels like gasoline and diesel—are said to have been shut by the fire. The pipeline that caught on fire supplies natural gas that fuels boilers on the units.
Sources told Reuters that returning the refinery to normal production is expected to take at least a month from the date of the fire (Feb. 11). Read the original story from Reuters.
