Marathon Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas restarting crude unit – sources

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Marathon Petroleum Corp began restarting a crude distillation unit (CDU) at its 585,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas, as the refinery recovers from the effects of severe cold weather a week ago, said sources familiar with plant operations.

In addition to the 225,000-barrel-per-day CDU, Marathon is also restarting a 112,500-bpd vacuum distillation unit (VDU) and the 140,000-bpd gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracker (FCC).

Marathon spokesman Jamal Kheiry declined comment on Monday.

CDUs break down crude oil into hydrocarbon feedstocks for all other production units at the refinery. The VDU, which is paired with the CDU, refines at vacuum pressure residual crude oil from the CDU, which operates at atmospheric pressure.