Valero Said to Move Memphis Refinery Work to April From March

Valero Energy Corp. (VLO)’s Memphis refinery was forced to move maintenance to April from March after losing a key parts supplier, a person familiar with operations said. The six weeks of work will begin on April 7, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The start was pushed back after the supplier went out of business, the person said. About half of the refinery will be idled as work is performed on the crude unit at the East plant, the fluid catalytic cracker, an alkylation unit and a sulfur unit, the person said. Bill Day, a spokesman for the company in San Antonio, declined to comment on plans for the refinery. Valero announced in October that it would start eight weeks of work in March at the refinery that would include maintenance on a crude unit and the fluid catalytic cracker. Beginning in January, Valero stopped its traditional practice of releasing information about its maintenance plans during quarterly earnings conference calls. The 195,000-barrel-a-day Memphis plant runs primarily light and sweet crude oil delivered by the Capline pipeline, according to Valero’s website. Capline runs from St. James, Louisiana, to Patoka,Illinois. Source :  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-04/valero-said-to-move-memphis-refinery-work-to-april-from-march.html