Coffeyville Resources Refining & Marketing Restarts Flooded Refinery

COFFEYVILLE, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Coffeyville Resources Refining & Marketing, LLC said today that it has restarted most of the operating units at its oil refinery which had been shut down since a record flood of the Verdigris River swept over the facility June 30-July 1.

“Our success has been made possible by the focus, drive and sustained high productivity of our employees and contractors, the exceptional response to our critical parts and equipment needs from vendors and suppliers, and the support of our shareholders.”

Process operations which have been restarted include both crude units, both vacuum units, the naphtha hydrotreater, the catalytic reformer, two distillate hydrotreaters, the fluid catalytic cracking unit, the alkylation unit, the isomerization unit, the delayed coking unit and sulfur recovery facilities. Remaining units are in varying stages of startup.

Coffeyville Resources said it will significantly beat earlier projections that the refinery would be fully restored by mid September.

The refinery is operating at a stable but reduced throughput while recovery efforts continue. It has operated at rates up to 98,000 barrels per day post startup, but overall crude charge rates will vary during the next few weeks. Before the flood, the refinery had been processing approximately 108,000 barrels per day of crude oil.

“Coffeyville Resources is moving much faster than anyone thought possible to restore refinery operations,” said Jack Lipinski, chief executive officer. “Our success has been made possible by the focus, drive and sustained high productivity of our employees and contractors, the exceptional response to our critical parts and equipment needs from vendors and suppliers, and the support of our shareholders.”

The company cautioned that mechanical challenges created by the flooding that reached depths of over six feet will require the company to carefully monitor all equipment as it increases throughput. Safety will continue to be the primary focus.

“We are cautiously optimistic that all units will operate normally as we complete our repair program and bring the refinery back to full production," Lipinski said. "However, restoring a severely flooded refinery is a difficult task, and operational issues may arise that could delay our return to maximum rates or require units to be shut down.”

Product from pre-flood inventory and restored operations has been shipped by pipeline as it became available. Truck rack sales from the company-owned terminal in Coffeyville could resume as early as next week.

The first refinery unit returned to service was the catalytic reformer, which came on line at reduced capacity August 6. Other major units followed shortly thereafter.

“I’ve been in this business for 35 years and have never seen a group of people work together with a single-minded focus as I have in the past six weeks,” said Lipinski. “The coordination and teamwork of our employees and contractors have been nothing short of amazing. They have accomplished what some thought to be impossible in this time frame.”

The company’s adjacent nitrogen fertilizer plant, while flooded, sustained less damage than the refinery because it sits on higher ground. It was restarted and began shipping product just two weeks after the flood.

About Coffeyville Resources, LLC

Coffeyville Resources, LLC is an independent refiner and marketer of high value transportation fuels and a producer of ammonia and urea ammonia nitrate, or UAN, fertilizers. Coffeyville Resources is one of only seven petroleum refiners and marketers in the Coffeyville supply area (Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa) and, at current natural gas prices, the lowest cost producer and marketer of ammonia and UAN in North America. Coffeyville Resources’ group of companies includes Coffeyville Resources Refining & Marketing, LLC, a 108,000 BPD oil refinery in Coffeyville, Kansas; Coffeyville Resources Crude Transportation, LLC, a crude oil gathering system serving central Kansas and northern Oklahoma; Coffeyville Resources Terminal, LLC, a refined products terminal in Phillipsburg, Kansas; Coffeyville Resources Pipeline, LLC; and Coffeyville Resources Nitrogen Fertilizers, LLC, which operates a unique coke gasification-based nitrogen fertilizer plant adjacent to the refinery that annually produces over 700,000 tons of nitrogen fertilizer products. For more information, please visit www.coffeyvillegroup.com.