PASCAGOULA, Miss. -- Chevron USA Inc. said it plans to build a major gasoline production unit at its refinery in Pascagoula, Miss. With environmental permits in place, construction of the Continuous Catalyst Regeneration (CCR) Project, estimated to cost around $500 million, is due to begin in early 2008 with completion anticipated by mid-2010.
The new CCR unit will improve equipment reliability and utilization, and it will allow the refinery to optimize product yields. Gasoline production at the refinery is expected to increase by approximately 10%, [image-nocss] or about 600,000 gallons per day.
Chevron continues to make significant investments at its refinery in Pascagoula, as well as foster economic development within the local community, said Roland Kell, Pascagoula Refinery general manager. The project also will provide about 700 new construction jobs in addition to the 150 jobs we already have added at the facility over the past two years.
Jeet Bindra, Chevron Global Refining president, said, This project further demonstrates our commitment to investing in the flexibility and reliability of our global refining network and expanding production of clean-burning transportation fuels increasingly in demand by our customers.
The new unit with updated refinery technology will replace two process units constructed more than 30 years ago. Crude oil capacity at the refinery will remain the same.
Since 2005, Chevron has executed other projects that have increased its gasoline manufacturing capacity in the United States by about 1 million gallons per day. In late 2006, the Pascagoula Refinery completed upgrades to its Fluid Catalytic Cracking unit, increasing its gasoline production by roughly 10% to about 5.5 million gallons per day.
Chevron is continuing to evaluate other potential opportunities to further enhance the competitive position of its Pascagoula Refinery and global refining network, it said.
Chevron has 2 million barrels per day of crude oil processing capacity through its share of 19 wholly owned or joint-venture fuel refineries and markets motor fuels through its more than 25,000 retail outlets worldwide under the Chevron, Texaco or Caltex brands. The Pascagoula Refinery, which is Chevron's largest wholly owned petroleum refinery, possesses the capacity to process an average of 330,000 barrels of crude oil per day and produces a variety of transportation fuels and other refined products.
Chevron USA is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of San Ramon, Calif.-based Chevron Corp. It operates across the entire energy spectrumproducing and transporting crude oil and natural gas; refining, marketing and distributing fuels and other energy products and services; manufacturing and selling petrochemical products; generating power; and developing and commercializing the energy resources of the future, including biofuels and other renewables.
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