Pemex to restart Salina Cruz refinery after fire accident

Mexican state-owned oil company Pemex is preparing to resume operations at the Antonio Dovalí Jaime refinery in Salina Cruz, which was shut down following a flood and fire earlier this month.

The company noted that the blaze was caused by heavy rains from tropical storm Calvin.

Several areas of the refinery were flooded, resulting in crude oil overflowing from the storage tanks.

Pemex is planning to bring the refinery back into production through a three-phase programme, which involves the resumption of operations, cleaning and rehabilitation of the affected site and general maintenance, and taking advantage of the stoppage process.

The maintenance activity carried out under the current programme is expected to advance a part of the maintenance that was scheduled for April next year, thereby reducing the economic impact of the stoppage of the refinery.

The company expects the refinery to become operational on 30 July.

Work related to the installation of new pumps to feed the refinery has already begun on a different site from the area where the fire was raised.

This will restart the pumping of crude oil even before the cleaning and recovery of the affected area is completed, a task which is already being carried out.

In addition, the company completed the root cause analysis to understand the factors that caused the emergency.

Pemex stated that several measures are in place to ensure the timely supply of fuels in the area.