HOUSTON, Jan 8 (Reuters) - BP Plc's revamped405,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in Whiting, Indiana hascontinued operating in extreme cold that has triggeredmalfunctions at neighboring crude oil refineries in the Chicagoarea, sources familiar with the BP plant said on Wednesday.
The Whiting refinery is the centerpiece of a shift in U.S.refining strategy by BP to focus on refineries in the northernU.S. with easy access to cheaper Canadian crude oil.
As part of that shift, BP just completed a $4-billionoverhaul of the Whiting plant that included rebuilding a 250,000bpd crude distillation unit and adding a 102,000 bpd cokingunit, which came on-line in December,
"There haven't been any problems so far," said one of thesources.
Operators at the refinery will be watching closely forpossible problems as the weather turns warmer later this week.Damage from freezing conditions may not be apparent until therefinery's pipes and units thaw out.
The refinery is designed to keep running in extreme coldweather, just as refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast areequipped to operate in hot, humid summer conditions, one of thesources said.
A BP spokesman declined to discuss operations at therefinery.
BP is preparing the refinery for the transition to heavyCanadian crude from tar sands fields in Alberta. The refineryhas been running sweet crude oil during the revamp project. Therefinery's Canadian crude consumption could go from 80,000 bpdto 350,000 bpd because of the overhaul.
A crude distillation unit does the bulk of refining of crudeoil in a refinery and supplies feedstock liquids to all otherunits in the plant.
A coking unit increases the amount of the refinable materialobtained from a barrel of oil and converts gunky residual crudeto petroleum coke, which can be used as a coal substitute. (Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Stephen Powell)
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