Reporting by Erwin Seba, Reuters
MEXICO CITY
EnergiesNet.com 03 15 2023
A fire broke out on Tuesday in the small crude distillation unit (CDU) at Pemex’s (PEMX.UL) 312,500 barrel-per-day (bpd) Deer Park, Texas refinery, people familiar with the matter said.
The blaze was the second time a fire erupted on the 70,000 bpd DU-1 CDU in the past three weeks, the sources said.
No injuries were reported from Tuesday’s fire, the sources said.
Pemex said in a statement that all workers at the refinery on the Houston Ship Channel were accounted for.
It was unclear how long DU-1 would be shut following Tuesday’s fire. The previous fire on Feb. 23 caused a shutdown of the unit for about two weeks.
The 270,000-bpd DU-2 CDU remained in operation at the Deer Park refinery.
Pemex said damage assessments were underway. This was the fourth fire at a Pemex facility in Texas or Mexico since Feb. 23, when three fires broke out on the same day.
CDUs break down crude oil into feedstocks for all other production units at a refinery.
Reporting by Erwin Seba; additional reporting by Brijesh Patel in Bengaluru; Editing by Shri Navaratnamreuters.com 03 14 2023
