Princeton, NJ, Jan 26, Bloomberg Energy.

The following refinery is reported to be undergoing planned maintenance. The information has not been confirmed by the company.

Company: Chevron Corp., Location: El Segundo, CA, Refinery Capacity: 258,000 barrels/day, Unit Type: Hydrocracker, Isomax Unit, Hydrogen Plant and a Diesel Unit. Event: Planned Maintenance. Duration: The hydrocracker will be shut for a month starting Feb 14. The isomax unit and hydrogen plant will be shut for 18 days starting Feb 14. The diesel making unit will be shut for 21 days starting Feb. 28.

Princeton, NJ, Jan 26, Bloomberg Energy.

The following refinery is reported to be undergoing planned maintenance. The information is not confirmed by the company.

Company: Chevron Corp., Location: El Paso, TX, Unit Type: Reformer & crude unit., Refinery Capacity: 90,000 barrels/day, Event: Planned Maintenance, Duration: 24 days in March.

Princeton, NJ, Jan 26, Bloomberg Energy.

The following refinery is reported to be undergoing planned maintenance. The information is not confirmed by the company.

Company: Chevron Corp., Location: Richmond, CA, Capacity: 240,000 barrels/day, Unit Types: #4 Reformer, #5 Reformer, and a Jet Fuel Unit, Event: Planned Maintenance, Duration: The #4 reformer will be shut for 38 days starting Jan. 20. The #5 reformer will be shut for 7 days beginning Apr. 15. The jet fuel unit will be shut for 19 days starting April 1.

-- Y2kObserver (Y2kObserver@nowhere.com), January 26, 2000

Answers

Since when is maintenance "planned" to shut for a month? And during what is materializing into a crisis?

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), January 27, 2000.

Planned Maintenance is a normal thing with a refinery. I grew up around the Houston Ship Channel and lots of my high school buddies had dads that worked in the refinerys and they themselves worked there after high-school. I worked for a company named Turnaround Maintenance one summer in the DuPont Refinery on SanJacinto Bay. I worked the day shift (12 hours) of a two shift day, seven days a week. The job lasted one month. We had to tear out the residue in a furnace and then tear out the ceramic brick that lined the furnace. We then put new ceramic bricks into the furnace. I was a bricklayers helper and made $4.75/hr in 1976. Since I worked 84 hours per week and was paid time and a half for overtime I was making $500/wk. I made more money in one month that summer than I did working all summer in my previous jobs.

During that month, the whole unit was shut down. We were replacing brick for a single furnace but it was an important furnace because the stuff that they made (Lannate) had to be heated by the furnace and then moved on to the next stage.

I also worked for a summer in the Exxon Refinery at Baytown as a labor crew member for Brown and Root. We were building new Hydrofining units (HU-7) is the one we were building and then in another one we were doing excavation and back-filling for oil separator pits. These refinerys are huge and have many different units for producing different products. A planned shutdown of a month is completely normal.

-- William R. Sullivan (wrs@wham.com), January 27, 2000.

A planned shutdown for maintenance would be completely normal, but a question arises whether a planned shutdown is in the best interests of the business if -- as has been reported -- refineries in the country are running at something like 6% below seasonal capacity. Would a "planned shutdown" announced through PR channels be the equivalent of a "scheduled shutdown"? Or in fact might it be likely refer to a shutdown planned a day or two in advance; or even a shutdown taken in response to an emergency, which was called for in protocols of plant operations. In other words, I'm presuming the terms in the petroleum indutsry are not as precise as they are under NRC regulations,and that there's room for "play" in definitions. Becuase it DOES NOT seem like a good time to be taking refineries off line, unless some unavoidable failure necessitates it.

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-- Squirrel Hunter (nuts@upina.cellrelaytower), January 27, 2000.

Sounds like a hail-mary attempt by the "industry" in a effort to sneak by 2/29.These so-called service dates all fall around leap year-amid a "oil shortage".......interesting.

-- budrazz (miketerri@voyager.net), January 27, 2000.