Delek boosts nameplate capacity at Texas refinery

Delek US Holdings Inc. has wrapped an expansion project at its Tyler, Tex., refinery that will increase the plant’s nameplate processing capacity to 75,000 b/d from its previous capacity of 60,000 b/d.

The refinery—the expansion of which was completed during a planned maintenance turnaround that began on Jan. 23—has entered the restart process and should resume normal operations within the next week, Delek US said.

The 2-month turnaround also included a project to replace the refinery’s fluid catalytic cracking reactor, the company said.

Completion of the Tyler refinery turnaround and 15,000-b/d expansion marks the end of a large-scale capital investment program in the company’s refining segment during the last year, which has increased the crude flexibility and overall processing capacity of Delek’s two US refineries to 155,000 b/d, said Uzi Yemin, Delek US president and chief executive officer.

In a planned turnaround executed during February 2014 at its 80,000-b/d El Dorado, Ark., refinery, Delek US carried out a series of projects designed to improve processing flexibility, including the replacement of the refinery’s FCC reactor and a debottlenecking of the crude pre-flash tower to increase its ability to process lighter crudes by 10,000 b/d (OGJ Online, May 8, 2014).

While Delek US has not disclosed a final capital investment cost for Tyler’s capacity expansion, the company most recently valued the project at about $70 million, according to a Feb. 23 report to investors.