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Petro Star Valdez plans ULSD upgrades Upgrades will allow the plant to produce ultra-low sulfur diesel and ultra-low sulfur kerosene in time for 2010 federal deadline Eric Lidji Petroleum News
Petro Star Inc. will upgrade its Valdez refinery this year to produce low sulfur fuels.
The upgrades involve constructing a new system for producing and storing ultra-low sulfur diesel and ultra-low sulfur kerosene, and to dispose of sulfur extracted from fuels.
The new fuels are required to meet federal air quality standards by the end of 2010.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began a nationwide transition to lower sulfur diesel starting in 2006, but the federal agency extended the deadline for rural Alaska.
Rural parts of the state have until December 2010 to complete the transition.
Ultra-low sulfur diesel is defined as having a maximum of 15 parts per million of sulfur.
Tesoro first ULSD refinery The upgrades will make the Valdez refinery at least the second in Alaska making ULSD.
In May 2007, the Tesoro refinery in Nikiski became the first in Alaska to produce ULSD after building a unit with a “nameplate production capacity of 10,000 barrels per day.”
Over the latter half of 2007, ConocoPhillips delayed and then canceled plans to upgrade a Kuparuk River unit topping plant to allow production of ULSD for local operations.
Without upgrades to the topping plant, producers will most likely have to truck ultra-low sulfur diesel from Southcentral refineries to the North Slope along the Dalton Highway.
The North Slope is considered “rural” for the purposes of the ULSD requirements.
Cause of fire still unknown The Petro Star refinery in Valdez began operations in 1993.
The refinery draws roughly 48,000 barrels per day from the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and produces around 13,000 barrels per day of product, 70 percent of which is jet fuel.
A fire last December shut the refinery down for a period of time.
The State Fire Marshal Office conducted an investigation with the City of Valdez Fire Department, but that investigation, so far, has not yielded a public report on the cause.
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