Suncor Energy reports unplanned unit shutdown at Commerce City refinery

abarrelfull wrote on 29 Mar 2013 11:07
Tags:

Latest News

• Want a weekly review of refining news?

• This Week in Refining
• RSS Feed

December 19, 2006

Suncor Energy (U.S.A.) Inc. reported today an unplanned shutdown of the diesel hydrotreating unit at its Commerce City refinery. This unit reduces sulfur content of diesel fuel in order to meet Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) requirements. The shutdown was a result of a failure in the unit's furnace.

The unit was safely taken off line during a controlled shutdown on December 15. Suncor maintenance personnel are currently determining the scope of the repair and plan to safely return the unit to full production as quickly as possible. As a result of the outage, the refinery's ULSD production is currently reduced to approximately 5,000 barrels per day from normal capacity of 20,000 bpd.

"We regret the inconvenience and are working to minimize the impact to our customers." said Steve Douglas, general manager of supply and marketing.

The refinery's diesel hydrotreating unit has been performing reliably since it began operations in June when Suncor completed a $445 million plant upgrade and began producing ULSD. As of June 1, 2006, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandated that refineries reduce the sulfur content of diesel to 15 parts per million (ppm) from 500 ppm.

• Suncor Energy reports unplanned unit shutdown at Commerce City refinery

---