Hurricane Ike delays Valero Corpus HOC restart

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Valero Energy Corp (VLO.N) said on Wednesday that Hurricane Ike slightly delayed the restart of a fire-damaged heavy oil cracking unit at its 340,000 barrel per day refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas.

The unit had been shut by a small fire September 5 that was expected to keep it down for repairs for 7 to 10 days, cutting gasoline production by 80,000 barrels per day and distillate production by 7,500 bpd.

"The original 7 to 10 day estimate got stretched due to concerns about the approach of Hurricane Ike, which originally was on a path straight for Corpus Christi. We haven't issued a new estimate, but we do not expect a long delay," a spokesman said.

The unit experienced a "process upset" on Wednesday which had no impact on the restart efforts or operations from other parts of the plant, the spokesman said.

(Reporting by Rebekah Kebede and Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Carole Vaporean)