Marathon Galveston Bay Refinery restarts hydrotreater, sources say

By Erwin Seba

HOUSTON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Marathon Petroleum MPC.N completed restarting the repaired residual hydrotreater (RHU) at its 631,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas, people familiar with the plant's operations said on Friday.

Marathon spokesperson Jamal Kheiry declined to discuss operations at the refinery, the second largest in the United States.

The last section to be repaired and restarted on the 64,000-bpd RHU was a hydrocracker heavily damaged by a June fire, the sources said. The hydrocracker had been expected to restart by the end of this week.

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

The 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.