Latest News

PBF restarts certain units at Martinez refinery following February fire. Fire-damaged units are still closed

PBF Energy said that it is restarting several refinery units at its Martinez facility, which were closed after an fire in February.

According to the announcement, the units will restart on Thursday. The process should take two weeks.

The company stated that any damaged units or those involved in the fire of February, such as the catalytic hydrotreater and the catalytic fuel plant, will be shut down and the restarting process will not start until the fourth quarter.

A fire broke out on February 1 at the 157,000 barrels per day (bpd), Martinez, California refinery. The fire started near the 77.500 bpd hydrotreater catalytic feed, which uses hydrogen for removing sulfur from gas oil in order to produce unfinished gasoline using the 70,000 bpd cracker catalytic.

The company's investigation team has been working to determine the cause of fire. It is expected to be completed by the end this month.

A portable air compressor caught fire at the Martinez refinery on Wednesday night while it was being refueled. One person was injured. The fire was put out and had nothing to do with any of the refinery's process units. Reporting by Nicole Jao, New York; Editing by Franklin Paul and Elaine Hardcastle

(source: Reuters)