A Sept. 22 fire at Citgo’s refinery in Lake Charles, La., has hampered production of base oil at the adjacent Cit-Con facility.
The blaze began at 8:30 a.m. at the Citgo plant’s Unicracker and lasted until the following afternoon. One employee and a contractor were injured in the incident and were treated at area hospitals. In addition, a fire fighter was taken to a hospital for observation after suffering chest pains.
The refinery is operated by Citgo Petroleum Corp. The base oil plant is a joint venture between Citgo and Conoco, although the former has agreed to buy out its partner by the end of this year.
Citgo offered no estimate of the value of damage and said it did not know when it would resume operations of the Unicracker, which is used in production of turbine fuels and some high-octane gasoline feedstocks. The company stated that operations of all other units of the plant have been reduced. A spokesman said he did not know the degree to which base oil production was affected and that a schedule for resuming normal operations has not been set.
President and Chief Executive Officer Oswaldo Contreras said in a written statement, “We are committed to making the necessary repairs to bring the refinery back up to full production as quickly as we possibly can. In the meantime, we expect to meet all of our contractual obligations.”
Citgo’s spokesman also said that the company had not yet determined the fire’s cause but that it was investigating the incident and cooperating with regulatory authorities.
The refinery manufactures mostly fuels and fuel feedstocks. The Cit-Con plant has capacity to produce 9,500 barrels of Group I base oils per day.