Marathon Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas restarting hydrotreater, sources say

By Erwin Seba

HOUSTON, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Marathon Petroleum MPC.N is restarting the last repaired section of the residual hydrotreater (RHU) at its 631,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas, according to people familiar with plant operations.

Marathon spokesperson Jamal Kheiry declined to discuss operations at the refinery on Wednesday.

The last section is a hydrocracker on the 64,000-bpd RHU that was heavily damaged by a June fire, the sources said. The hydrocracker is expected to restart by the end of this week.

In October, sources told Reuters that the repairs to the hydrocracker section would wrap up in November, with a restart expected in the middle of the month.

John Quaid, Marathon's Chief Financial Officer, said in a November 4 conference call that the hydrocracker was expected to restart before the end of the month.

Hydrotreater sections on the RHU completed restarting in September.

Hydrotreaters use hydrogen to remove sulfur from motor fuels and their feedstocks to comply with U.S. environmental rules.

The hydrocracker uses a catalyst under high heat and pressure, in the presence of hydrogen, to convert residual crude oil into diesel and other motor fuels.