The seven refineries of Pemex in Mexico have processed the highest amount of crude oil in a year, while the Dos Bocas refinery has recorded the highest rates since its opening almost three years ago, according to data from the company compiled by Bloomberg. In March, crude processing reached 1,015 million barrels per day, an increase of 13% compared to the previous month, although 4.4% less compared to the previous year. The refineries operated above 50% of their installed capacity, with 51.6% compared to 45.7% in February.
The Dos Bocas refinery processed 103,000 barrels per day of crude in March, compared to 6,800 barrels per day in February. The CEO, Víctor Rodríguez Padilla, had previously mentioned that Dos Bocas would reach an operation of 220,000 barrels per day by the end of March and would reach its maximum capacity this year. The refinery is undergoing a restart process after its shutdown on April 26, according to the company’s announcement.
Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) reported that the shutdown of the Dos Bocas refinery on April 26 was due to a failure in the communication of the main satellite number 17 of the CCS-17 Cogeneration plant, which triggered the automatic shutdown of the heat recoverers and the auxiliary boiler. "This caused a general steam failure and the immediate stoppage of the process plants," the company explained in a statement. As a result, the electrical load of the complex was reduced from 130 to 65 MWh, leading to the disconnection of the gas turbine generators at 00:59 hours on April 26.
During the maneuvers for balancing the electrical loads, an attempt was made to switch turbine generator 2 from combined cycle to simple cycle, which involved executing the shutdown command of heat recoverer 2.
