Pemex adopts Bechtel coking technology for new refinery

Mexico’s Pemex Refinancion has signed a licensing agreement with Bechtel Hydrocarbon Technology Solutions Inc., Houston, for process design of a delayed-coking unit for the new Tula refinery in Hidalgo, Mexico.

The unit will use Bechtel’s ThruPlus Coking technology to upgrade heavy oil into light hydrocarbon liquids.

The technology will increase the Tula refinery’s production of “high quality gasoline and diesel and reduce the production of heavy fuel oil,” according to Scott Johnson, vice-president and general manager of Bechtel’s onshore oil and gas/downstream division. The unit will be one of the largest in the world, he said, and be configured with a two-train, 166,000-b/d capacity.