One week suspension of propylene production at Pemex's Salina Cruz refinery after fire

19-Jun-17

Mexico's largest refinery - 330,000 b/d at Salina Cruz - saw fire that started Wednesday last week and was brought under control on Friday. The fire was the result of an oil spill reaching an ignition point in the wake of Tropical Storm Calvin flooding the refinery, located on Mexico's Pacific Coast. Propylene production at Pemex's Salina Cruz refinery will be suspended for at least one week as a result of a recent fire, as per company sources in Platts. Pemex's propylene stock will see a "considerable thinning" as a result of the Mexican state-owned oil company taking the refinery offline, and the company hopes to replenish its monomer supply once operational again.

Pemex said Friday that firefighters had extinguished the fire, which started Wednesday at the 330,000 b/d Salina Cruz refinery in the southern state of Oaxaca. The Salina Cruz refinery is the largest in Mexico and a major source of refinery-grade propylene, a key feedstock for the manufacture of polypropylene resin. Salina Cruz is also a major supplier of residual fuel oil to the US state of California.