Valero Starts Unit at Corpus Christi, Texas, Refinery (Update1)
2008-05-19 12:08 (New York)
By Nesa Subrahmaniyan and Robert Tuttle

     May 19, 2008 (Bloomberg) — Valero Energy Corp., the largest U.S.
refiner, said emissions reported yesterday at its Corpus
Christi, Texas, plant were the result of the startup of a
gasoline unit.
     “We had an upset during the startup of the east plant”
fluid catalytic cracker, Bill Day, a company spokesman, said in
an e-mail. There was “no impact to production, since the unit
had been shut down. Restart process continues.”
     Yellowish smoke was seen coming from the refinery’s East
plant yesterday evening after 6 p.m. local time, KIII-TV
reported on its Web Site.
     A security guard had trouble breathing and was hosed down
with water by a Corpus Christi firefighter, stripped of his
clothes and taken to a hospital as a safety measure, the report
said.
     The public was never in danger, and within 30 minutes the
smoke disappeared, the report said.
     The refinery can process about 146,000 barrels a day,
according to U.S. Energy Department data.

–Editor: Clyde Russell, Bill Banker

To contact the reporter on the story:
Nesa Subrahmaniyan in Singapore at +65-6212-1509 or
nesas@bloomberg.net
Robert Tuttle in New York at +1-212-617-3465 or
rtuttle@bloomberg.net