Texaco Refining & Marketing Inc. is preparing to bring parts of its 95,000 b/d Wilmington, Calif., refinery back on line following an Oct. 8 explosion (OGJ, Oct. 19, p. 40).
The explosion occurred in the hydrocracker, also directly affecting the hydrogen generation unit and steam methane reformer.
Texaco shut down all six process units at the refinery, including the undamaged crude distillation, fluid catalytic cracking, delayed coking, and sulfuric acid alkylation units.
The crude unit was originally projected to come back on line Oct. 21, though at presstime, Texaco was uncertain whether this deadline would be met. A Texaco official said the other three undamaged units will return to service during the next few weeks. The three hydrogen units are shut down for an undetermined period, pending a thorough damage assessment.
Cause of the explosion is being investigated by teams from Texaco, U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), California OSHA, Los Angeles City Fire Department, California State Fire Marshal, and Oil & Chemical Workers International Union. Among the 16 people injured were 13 Texaco employees, I contract employees and 2 unknown persons, the official said.
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