Lyondell Houston refinery VDU shut by pump failure
(Reuters) A 91 Mbpd vacuum distillation unit (VDU) was shut due to a pump failure Tuesday at LyondellBasell Industries' 263 Mbpd Houston refinery, Gulf Coast market sources said.
Lyondell was working to determine the cause of the pump failure Tuesday night and return the unit to operation overnight or sometime Wednesday, the sources said.
The VDU is one of two vacuum units of the same size at the refinery. It takes residual crude oil from the 120 Mbpd crude distillation unit and processes it in a vacuum, increasing the yield of motor fuel feedstock.
Similar VDU outages in the past have forced the refinery to reduce production.
There are two CDUs at the refinery. Both remained in operation on Tuesday night, the sources said. The CDUs do the initial refining of crude oil coming in to the refinery and provide feedstock for all other units.
Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Leslie Adler
Comments