Production at TotalEnergies‘ 238,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas refinery was reduced and the small crude distillation unit (CDU) shut following a fire on Friday morning, said people familiar with plant operations.
The fire broke out at about 4:30 a.m. CDT (0930 GMT) on the 35,000-bpd reformer in the naphtha and aromatics processing section of the refinery, the sources said.
Company spokesperson Tricia Fuller declined to comment on Friday.
The reformer, which produces octane-boosting components to make premium grades of gasoline, was shut by the fire.
The 40,000-bpd ACU-2 CDU was shut as units fed by it went into upset following the fire, according to the sources.
It may take up to a month to repair damage to piping and conduit on the reformer from the fire, the sources said.
The naphtha and aromatics section also includes a 42,000-bpd hydrotreater, a 13,500-bpd isomerization plant and 5,000-bpd alkylation unit along with Toluene and Sulfolane units.
The TotalEnergies refinery struggled following the end of a three-month overhaul on the gasoline-producing 76,000-bpd FCC in late November through mid-January to reach full production.
The refinery was then hit by a plant-wide power outage on Jan. 16, although it returned to normal production by Feb. 21.
ACU-2 is the smaller of two CDUs that begin the refining process by breaking down crude oil into feedstocks for all other units at the refinery.
Hydrotreaters use hydrogen to remove sulfur from motor fuels in compliance with U.S. environmental rules.
Isomerization and alkylation units use different processes to make octane-boosting components added to gasoline.
