Valdez refinery returns to full output
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Safety systems improved as cause of last December’s fire remains undetermined; plans laid to make low-sulfur diesel at refinery
Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
Petro Star Inc. has resumed full operations at its small Valdez crude oil refinery following a fire last December that local fire officials estimated did about $20 million in damage.
Petro Star, a subsidiary of Arctic Slope Regional Corp., finished repairs and returned the plant to top output on Oct. 22.
“Reconstruction of the Valdez refinery is complete thanks to the hard work of Petro Star’s employees, insurers, suppliers and contractors, including Arctic Slope Energy Services, another ASRC subsidiary,” Petro Star’s president and chief executive, Doug Chapados, said in a Nov. 2 press release.
The refinery is designed to take 60,000 barrels a day of crude oil from the nearby trans-Alaska oil pipeline to make more than 16,000 barrels a day of commercial and military jet fuels, marine and off-road diesel, and home heating fuels.
The refinery restart will allow Copper Valley Electric Association’s cogeneration turbine located at the Petro Star plant to resume power production this fall.
“Operation of this facility should help to moderate electrical rates compared to last winter when power was produced using diesel generator sets,” ASRC said.
Low-sulfur diesel coming Along with the reconstruction effort, Petro Star also began site work for its “clean fuels project,” the ASRC press release said.
“This large capital investment provides for the installation of a distillate hydrotreater and associated process units at the Valdez refinery,” the release said. “The new hydrotreater will allow Petro Star to produce desulfurized diesel fuels that meet specifications established by the Environmental Protection Agency.”
At peak construction, the project will employ more than 150 workers, and Petro Star will add about 20 permanent refinery positions to operate and maintain the new facilities once commissioned, ASRC said.
Prior to the fire, the Valdez refinery employed 22 people. The plant began operations in 1993.
Petro Star has a second refinery at North Pole in the state’s Interior.
Investigation continues The fire on the icy, windy night of Dec. 28, 2008, was a major and dangerous event for the Valdez Fire Department and the fire brigades at the Petrol Star refinery and the nearby Alyeska oil tanker port.
More than 30 firefighters needed about two hours to put out the blaze, which caused severe damage to the refinery’s processing unit and associated piping.
State regulators said at the time the fire started in a refractory tower.
No one was injured and no foul play was suspected in the blaze. The Valdez Fire Department, the state fire marshal’s office and occupational safety and health officials investigated.
What exactly caused the fire still hasn’t been determined, Valdez Fire Chief George Keeney told Petroleum News on Nov. 10. Investigators are still awaiting a metals analysis.
The fire exposed some weaknesses in the refinery’s design, Keeney said.
Crude oil pumping should have stopped automatically but continued because the fire burned out controls, he said. This fueled the blaze and meant firefighters had to manually stem the flow.
“We would have had a lot less fire through there and lot less damage,” Keeney said, had an automatic shutdown kicked in.
A new and improved system has been installed, he said.
“The facility is a lot better than what it was,” Keeney said. “It’s actually a lot safer facility.”
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