All these refiners need relook at change-over that was made in mid 1980’s and rethink!
They all went from steam recips to electric pumps/turbines (major drivers on Crude/Vac/FCC units) due cheap electric & rising NG prices and made the decision they could save lot money from boilers/water/steam cost and that any major unit down would likely pull down whole refinery…….and so now any bump does put whole plant offline.
All the Hurricanes showed that only plants with own/partial ownership in nearby Cogen/Pwr Plant would come back online quickly after major storm hit. Even on once/4 years thats big hit on cost & if you figure its at least 4 times over 20 year life plant – its big cost starting point.
This news item shows BP Tx City with big cogen so not sure why it is waiting for 2nd redundant power line source to startup?
All this made more relevant with US at todays $4/MMBTU (compared to EU’s $9/MMBTU) Nat Gas cost for alternate fuel to Cogen with 2nd stage Gas Turbines (could switch to NG in emergency).
