Houston Refinery's Cracker Remains Out of Action After Fire

A crack found in a gasoline-producing unit at Lyondell Basell’s 263,776 barrel-per-day refinery in Houston, Texas, has kept that unit out of action since a fire Sunday.

Lyondell Basell has remained silent regarding the reported fire.

Reuters quotes unnamed sources as saying the 90,000 bpd gasoline-producing fluid catalytic cracking unit is expected to remain inoperative for the rest of the week due to a crack found in the unit’s regenerator, a device that determines the amount of heat available for the catalytic process.

The cracker converts heavy petroleum such as crude oil into lighter, more efficient hydrocarbon products such as gasoline, turpentine, kerosene and other fuels.

Lyondell Basell’s Houston refinery is one of the largest in the U.S. designed to process heavy-sulfur crude oil. The facility was one of the first refinery’s built on the Houston Ship Channel more than 100 years ago.