In two weeks, HOVENSA will shut down its fluidized catalytic cracking unit, or cat cracker, for more than a month for an overhaul and so that the unit can be modified to work with the long-awaited coker project.
The overhaul, also called a "turnaround," of the 140,000-barrel-a-day cat cracker will take five weeks, according to Alex Moorhead, HOVENSA vice president of human resources. At the same time, modifications will be made in the complex to make it possible for the 58,000-barrel-per-day coker, which is currently under construction, to be integrated.
During the turnaround of the cat cracker and the construction of the $535-million coker, some 2,000 people will be employed, Moorhead said. The coker is scheduled to be completed by February 2002.
The coker project will include a petroleum coke storage facility, a dock and modifications to existing processing units. The coker will enable the refinery to process heavier Venezuelan crude oil, for which HOVENSA has a long-term supply contract with Petroleos De Venezuela SA. Without the coker, HOVENSA is forced to process crude oil that is more expensive than what competitors process.
The refinery's cat cracker produces high-octane components needed for the production of premium gasoline.
The HOVENSA refinery, which produces about 400,000 barrels of oil a day, although it has the capability to pump out 500,000 barrels a day, is 50 percent owned by PDVSA, the national oil company of Venezuela, and 50 percent by Amerada Hess.
The refinery is basically targeted toward yielding diesel oil and gasoline, products that meet the most strict quality specifications demanded by the United States. Its geographic location offers it a competitive advantage as direct supplier to the East Coast of the U.S. and to markets located in the Caribbean and Latin America.