February 09, 2008
Valero Says Plant Outages Cost It $2 Billion
By Vicki Vaughan, San Antonio Express-News
Feb. 8--Valero Energy Corp.’s managers said Thursday that unplanned outages at its refineries cost the company $2 billion in “lost opportunities” last year.
Major unplanned outages at Valero’s plants included a February fire that prompted a two-month shutdown of Valero’s McKee refinery near Sunray in the Panhandle, a power outage at its Aruba plant in the Caribbean in October and a power disruption at its Texas City refinery in December. Also, the company’s massive Port Arthur plant had recurring problems with key units that produce gasoline.
Valero’s managers, in a presentation to investors, also attributed some plant downtime to more stringent fuel specifications and environmental regulations. In addition, the use of more inexperienced workers has sometimes lengthened maintenance days, the company noted during a presentation at a Credit Suisse Energy Conference.
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