Shell, Pemex to Expand Deer Park Refinery

Mexico's state oil company Pemex and Royal Dutch/Shell reached an agreement to expand the distilling and coking capacity of their refinery in Deer Park, Texas, Pemex said in a statement Tuesday. The expansion would increase Deer Park's Maya type crude production capacity by 60,000 barrels per day. The project includes the expansion of the plant's existing coking unit, a new sulfur plant and the improvement of the plant's oil distilling units, hydrotreatment of distills and catalytic hydrodisintegration units. Pemex and Shell have been associated in Deer Park since 1993, when the refinery processed 230,000 bpd, compared to today's 280,000 bpd output, of which 160,000 is Maya type heavy crude. The improvements will increase the refinery's capacity to 340,000bpd, of which 220,000 bpd will be heavy crude oil.