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Sources say that Motiva FCC shut down the refinery in Texas for two weeks.

Sources say that Motiva FCC shut down the refinery in Texas for two weeks.

Sources familiar with the plant's operations on Monday said that a fluidic catalytic cracked (FCC) in Motiva Enterprises refinery Port Arthur, Texas is expected to be closed for at least two weeks following a second failed restart attempt last weekend.

On January 21, the unit called FCC3 and an alkylation was shut down for a planned two-month overhaul.

FCCs transform gas oil into unfinished fuel, while alkylation systems convert refinery byproducts into components that are typically added to gasoline.

Motiva didn't immediately respond to a comment request.

Sources said that the second attempt to restart FCC3, which is capable of producing around 81,000 barrels a day, resulted in a compressor failure on the unit. This caused the delay of two weeks.

On March 22, the refinery had tried to restart its sole cracker unit. The refinery has a capacity of converting 626,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil to motor fuels and other petrochemicals.

Sources added that the 18,000-bpd unit was partially restarted, but it will not be able to return to full production before FCC3 is restored. Daksh Grocer in Bengaluru, Leslie Adler, and Janane Vekatraman edited the article.

(source: Reuters)