Delek US Holdings Inc. has wrapped an expansion project at its Tyler, Tex., refinery that will increase the plant’s nameplate processing capacity to 75,000 b/d from its previous capacity of 60,000 b/d.
The refinery—the expansion of which was completed during a planned maintenance turnaround that began on Jan. 23—has entered the restart process and should resume normal operations within the next week, Delek US said.
The 2-month turnaround also included a project to replace the refinery’s fluid catalytic cracking reactor, the company said.
Completion of the Tyler refinery turnaround and 15,000-b/d expansion marks the end of a large-scale capital investment program in the company’s refining segment during the last year, which has increased the crude flexibility and overall processing capacity of Delek’s two US refineries to 155,000 b/d, said Uzi Yemin, Delek US president and chief executive officer.
In a planned turnaround executed during February 2014 at its 80,000-b/d El Dorado, Ark., refinery, Delek US carried out a series of projects designed to improve processing flexibility, including the replacement of the refinery’s FCC reactor and a debottlenecking of the crude pre-flash tower to increase its ability to process lighter crudes by 10,000 b/d (OGJ Online, May 8, 2014).
While Delek US has not disclosed a final capital investment cost for Tyler’s capacity expansion, the company most recently valued the project at about $70 million, according to a Feb. 23 report to investors.