Petrobras has completed its 50% purchase of Pasadena (Astra/previous Crown) Refinery for $360MM. It is a move to place its heavier Marlim crude and also expand it’s downstream presence in US operations. The Texas refinery has a coker that has been producing 128,000 mt/year of 1% Sulfur anode petcoke. If Petrobras brings in the Marlim crude and boost capacity by the 100,000 BPD indicated, then the coker capacity will also need to be expanded and the petcoke will become fuel grade. The conversion to Marlim crude and coker expansion will likely use Petrobras technology.
Pasadena Refining System was acquired from Crown Petroleum in February 2005 and became a subsidiary of Astra Holding Inc (which is a subsidiary of Compagnie National a Portefeuille of Belgium)
Regards
Charlie Randall
