Here is news update as of 2/14/08 (bottom) and it looks like refinery saw its shadow so it will be down for 2 more months!
Valero’s Aruba is still at reduced rates with Vac Unit down & will be that way for two more months. Means coker rates are also reduced (unless they have lot feedstock in tankage).
This isn’t likely help Aruba get off Valero’s sell list or make its earnings look good for 1Q07.
These reduced/lost 3 months petcoke production for Aruba along with BP Texas City continued reduced production are likely cancel out the new additional petcoke tonnes from COP Borger new Coker’s & CHS Laurel new Coker’s additional 1Q08 petoke production. So this is shaping up to be yet another year (4th in row) where petcoke production in US/Gulf -Carib is locked in at 2004 production levels even though new additions / debottlenecking (like Aruba’s +287kmtpy, Frontier’s Cheyenne & El Dorado, and Coffeyville ) added capacity (now up by~ +3-5 million tpy since 2004) but production levels are canceled out do fires/accidents/downtimes.
You will want to keep an eye on prices when that dam breaks…..and make sure there are some storage padds available at one bulk terminals. PDVSA’s Sincor upgrader is still having problems loading petcoke – so following chain it wont be in 1Q 08.
Regards
Charlie Randall
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Aruba Refinery Works at Reduced Rates
Wednesday February 13, 7:52 pm ET
Valero’s Aruba Refinery Processes at Reduced Rates After Fire
ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) — Processing units at Valero Energy Corp.’s refinery on this southern Caribbean island are operating at reduced rates since a key unit caught fire late last month.
A spokesman for the San Antonio-based refiner said Wednesday that the 275,000-barrels-a-day plant on the southern tip of Aruba would process at reduced rates pending the restart of the vacuum unit damaged by the Jan. 25 fire.
“We expect that unit back up in around two months,” spokesman Bill Day said by e-mail. He did not provide further details.
The Aruba plant processes heavy, sour crude which is cheaper than the light, sweet variety to produce a high yield of finished distillate products and feedstock. Valero, the largest independent oil refiner in the United States, bought the Aruba plant in 2004