Maintenance & Reliability
Venezuela's PDVSA resumes operations at El Palito refinery unit
Venezuela's state energy company Petroleos de Venezuela PDVSA has resumed operation at the catalytic cracking unit at the El Palito refinery.
Catalytic cracking unit at Venezuela's Cardon refinery shut down
The catalytic cracking unit at Venezuela's Cardon refinery, the country's second-biggest, has broken down and paused operations since the middle of the week.
Critical considerations for retrofit designing a platformer reactor’s partial bypass piping in a NHT plant
The naphtha hydrotreater/continuous catalyst regeneration (NHT/CCR) platformer produces reformate to be utilized as a blending stock in the gasoline pool (FIG. 1).
Next generation tank lining delivers next-level service lives
Owners of refined products terminals, crude oil terminals, chemical plants and refineries can encounter several challenges when taking storage tanks out of service for inspection and repair per American Petroleum Institute Recommended Practice 653 requirements.
How companies can take advantage of APM solutions to reduce planned maintenance
According to Löfsten, “the costs of maintenance are estimated to be between 15% and 40% of production costs.” Consequently, efforts to reduce such costs without compromising risk to equipment, personnel safety and environmental integrity are welcomed.
How Bluetooth® technology extends the capabilities and connectivity of wired instrumentation
One day at a refinery, operators call an instrument tech to the control room and point to the screen.
Advanced compressor control and monitoring systems
Modern advanced control and monitoring systems for centrifugal compressors support compression plant operation at the highest possible efficiency, availability and reliability.
Maximizing profitability by operationalizing performance criteria
In the hydrocarbon and other process industries, engineering and operations teams have a fundamental responsibility to maximize asset profitability.
Maintenance and Reliability: Non-standard flanges for catalytic cracking units
In more complex petroleum refineries, a secondary processing step may be implemented in more complex petroleum refineries to produce more usable end products.
Digital Technologies: Do not just monitor bad actor machines: Start when they are healthy
Often, facilities hesitate to invest in monitoring rotating equipment until the machine fails. By that time, there is no background information, such as vibration or temperature data, to help site engineers diagnose the machine’s failure. However, by implementing a remote monitoring solution on healthy equipment, users can set a baseline of machine health to gain essential insights when the machine begins to fail.
- Indian Oil buys first Colombian oil under Ecopetrol contract 12/31
- Ukrainian drone attack sparks fire, damages equipment at Tuapse refinery 12/31
- Chile's $2.5-B Volta green ammonia project wins environmental permit 12/31
- China begins issuing second batch of 2026 crude import quotas to refiners 12/31
- EIA: U.S. crude, fuel inventories rose in the week ended December 19 12/30
- Ghana's Tema oil refinery restarts after 9-yr shutdown 12/30

