Chevron South Africa (Pty.) Ltd., a subsidiary of Chevron Corp., has reported it will undertake annual routine safety and maintenance inspections at its 110,000-b/d Cape Town refinery at Milnerton, South Africa, starting in February.
This year’s planned maintenance activities at the refinery, which are due to begin on Feb. 1, will involve an investment of about 25 million rand ($1.5 million) and will include work designed to ensure ongoing safety and reliable operations at the site, Chevron told OGJ via e-mail.
The company said it has built up strategic fuel supplies ahead of the refinery’s scheduled shutdown to mitigate regional product supply constraints during the maintenance period.
Last year, the Cape Town refinery underwent one of the biggest routine maintenance and safety inspection projects in its history, which at a total cost of 412 million-rand ($25.8 million), also included work to complete a 450 million-rand ($28.2 million) revamp of the plant’s flare system (OGJ Online, Apr. 29, 2015, Feb. 9, 2015).
This year’s inspection will be on a much smaller scale as a result of a result of the extensive work executed during the 2015 turnaround period, Chevron said.
The company did not disclose details regarding the precise duration of the maintenance closure.
Confirmation of the planned maintenance at Cape Town comes just ahead of Chevron’s Jan. 29 fourth-quarter 2015 earnings conference call and webcast, the presentation materials for which already are posted to the company’s web site.
According to the Jan. 29 presentation slides, Chevron is planning to offer a series of assets for sale this year, which alongside downstream assets in South Africa, will include its downstream business in New Zealand and the 54,000-b/d Kapolei, Ha., refinery.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
