Woods Cross refinery not ready to start up

WOODS CROSS — Silver Eagle will not start refining at its Woods Cross operation Jan. 31.

The date had been a target for the embattled refinery, which suffered a flash fire in January 2009 and a hydrogen explosion in November, to start up one of its low-pressure, low-risk units.

Crude Unit No. 1 was not involved in the November explosion, which happened at the refinery's nearby Mobil Distillate Dewaxing unit when a pipe carrying hydrogen gas leaked and exploded, damaging nearby homes. The refinery hasn't touched the dewaxing unit since the explosion.

Red caution tape surrounds the unit because investigations are ongoing. Insulation sags around one column, and scorch marks are visible up the side of the unit's reactor. What's left of a windsock hangs limp and shredded from the top.

Because the refinery has been losing about $800,000 a day since it shut down on the recommendation of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board and regulators, officials are anxious to get operations going again, but only when they can do it safely, said Mike Redd, Silver Eagle Refining's vice president of refining and operations.

To get ready, the refinery has set up a list of protocols it will follow to safely restart.

"We will not start up until we have completed the protocol (and) ensured the equipment is fit for service," Redd said Wednesday during an open house that allowed residents to tour the refinery by bus and meet with insurance adjusters.

The decision not to go ahead with a startup Sunday helped some residents gain more trust in the refinery.

Sara Marchant, who moved into the neighborhood across from the refinery in July, said her home suffered cosmetic damage in the explosion, and the refinery's insurance company has been slow to respond.

That looks bad for the refinery, Marchant said. But hearing Wednesday night that the refinery isn't going to start up, "that was very comforting," she said. "They earned a lot of trust from me."

One of the keys to starting up again will be getting a signature from Brian Gibbs of ABS Consulting, one of a variety of consultants the refinery has hired.

Redd said the company will be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on consulting work alone.

Gibbs said his company has an international reputation it doesn't take lightly.

"We simply tell it like it is," he said.

And so far, he credits the refinery with a commitment to make things right.

"They are very, very conservative," Gibbs said, citing an example where a pipe was noted with recommendation to be replaced in a couple of years.

"We'll deal with it now," came the refinery's reply, he said.

Gibbs said he is on the team helping the refinery develop its mechanical integrity program, which the CSB said in November was not robust enough.

The new program will be built from the ground up to make sure it's efficient and effective, Gibbs said.

About 50 residents attended Wednesday's open house, compared with 160 who attended the first Woods Cross City Council meeting following the explosion.

e-mail: jdougherty@desnews.com twitter: desnewsdavis