Calcasieu Refining has pushed back the earliest expected restart of it's fire-damaged 135,000 b/d Lake Charles, Louisiana, refinery to mid-to-late August.
Calcasieu initially said the facility could be closed for up to two months after a 3 June lightning strike caused a naphtha tank fire. But a spokesperson for the refinery told Argus today the projected restart is now mid-to-late August at the earliest.
A 17 June fire as workers began demolition of the damaged naphtha tank did not alter the estimated downtime, Calcasieu said at the time.
With no fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) on site to turn naphtha and vacuum gas-oil (VGO) the refinery produces into finished gasoline and limited on site tanker storage, Calcasieu runs a tight loading schedule to ship blendstocks to traders and refiners by barge.
Still, the Calcasieu outage has done little to boost activity in Gulf coast gasoline blendstock markets which were tight for much of the second quarter.
