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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory

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To: russwinter who wrote (29262)3/23/2005 6:10:16 PM
From: Elroy Jetson  Read Replies (1) of 110194
 
The primary reason why refineries burst into flame or explosion is excessive run-time between overhauls. Refinery engineers are most likely to stretch out the time between shut-down maintenance when gasoline prices and refinery margins are high - like they are now.

Shut-down and re-build, which takes about 45 day, happens about every 18 months. If you stretch this out to 24 months, you effectively eliminate 15 days of lost production.

The unit most likely to burst into flame in a Chevron refinery is the isomaxing unit, a proprietary catalytic cracking process. This giant processing tower combines oil and natural gas with catalysts at temperatures ranging from 600 to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. Over time, processes like these corrode the containment vessel which eventually lead to failure.

The Isomaxer normally fails with fire erupting at defective welds. Rarely, larger failures occur - which is why the operators are located in underground bunkers. When refineries stretch out maintenance leading to containment failure, regulatory agencies levy fines for pollution emission and worse consequences if anyone is hurt.

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