(Adds Motiva comment, details)
HOUSTON, March 13 (Reuters) - Motiva Enterprises LLC is considering starting a planned overhaul of thesecond largest crude distillation unit at its 600,250 barrel perday (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas, refinery in July because of delaysin the schedule caused by a strike, sources familiar with thecompany's plans said on Friday.
Preparations for a 45-day overhaul of the 195,000 bpd CDU,called VPS-4, are about four weeks behind schedule, the sourcessaid.
The timing of the CDU overhaul is also contingent onsuccessful completion of an overhaul of the refinery's 92,000bpd gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit (FCCU).That unit's return has been delayed by problems restarting aheater, the sources said.
A Motiva spokeswoman said the company routinely scheduleswork to maintain units at its refineries.
"We schedule our maintenance programs in advance and makeadjustments to our schedule based on the needs of our business," Motiva spokeswoman Kelly op de Weegh said.
She declined to discuss planned work on specific units.
Before the on Feb. 21 start of a strike by workers at therefinery, which is the nation's largest, Motiva had planned tostart the CDU overhaul in June.
Nine other units are planned to be shut for overhaul whileVPS-4 is being worked on. Among the other units are the 54,000bpd coking unit and the 49,000 bpd catalytic reformer.
While VPS-4 is shut, the refinery's other two CDUs, whichhave a combined throughput of 400,000 bpd, are scheduled toremain in operation. The CDUs do the initial refining of crudeoil coming into the refinery and provide feedstock for all otherunits.
A tentative settlement of the strike was reached on Thursdaybetween Shell Oil Co and the United Steelworkers union (USW).Workers are expected to return to their jobs within two weeks,
Shell Oil is the U.S. arm of Royal Dutch Shell Plc,co-owner of Motiva along with Saudi Aramco. (Reporting by Erwin Seba, editing by Andre Grenon; and PeterGalloway)
