(Adds Motiva comment, background, details)
HOUSTON, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Motiva Enterprises shut the 195,000 barrel-per-day crude distillation unit onFriday at its 600,250-bpd Port Arthur, Texas, refinery, thenation's largest, as problems developed while increasingproduction to full rates following an overnight restart, saidsources familiar with plant operations.
The crude unit was shut on Tuesday due to a leaking pipe. Itrestarted early on Friday morning following repairs. The CDU,called VPS-4, and the second-largest at the refinery, is one ofthree doing the initial refining of crude oil coming into theplant and providing feedstock for all other units.
A Motiva spokesman declined to discuss operations at thePort Arthur refinery.
"In keeping with our disclosure policy, we cannot providedetail with respect to the specific units being worked on, orhow long it will take to complete the maintenance," said Motivaspokesman Ray Fisher.
The 60,000-bpd hydrocracking unit remains shut at the PortArthur refinery. Motiva plans to restart the unit early nextweek, according to the sources.
The refinery is in the midst of seven-week overhaul of the92,000-bpd fluidic catalytic cracking unit, which is expected torestart in the first half of March, the sources said.
The refinery's largest crude unit, the 325,000-bpd-capacityVP-5, is running at about 200,000 bpd because of the outage ofthe hydrocracker and several other units, the sources said.
Among the other shut units are the 95,000-bpd delayed cokingunit, a 50,000-bpd cat feed hydrotreater, a 49,000-bpd catalyticreformer and the units that produce lube oils at the refinery,the sources said.
Motiva has been attempting to complete as much maintenanceas possible on the refinery ahead of the expiration on Friday ofthe contract for hourly workers, who are represented by theUnited Steelworkers union (USW).
The refinery's 80,000-bpd capacity VPS-2 crude distillationunit has been running at about 70,000 bpd.
The hydrocracker went down on Monday after a malfunction.
Motiva is a 50/50 joint venture between Royal Dutch ShellPlc and Saudi Aramco. (Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Chris Reese and LisaShumaker)