OREANDA-NEWS. LyondellBasell will delay planned maintenance on a gasoline unit into 2016 amid reduced rates and an ongoing strike at its 268,000 b/d refinery in Houston, Texas.

Work scheduled for the last three months of 2015 on a fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit will now take place in early 2016 because of an ongoing worker strike, the company said today. Unspecified April maintenance wrapping up now had minimally reduced rates but would affect average throughputs for the second quarter, the company said.

Maintenance at a third-party gas treatment facility and work inside the refinery cut crude throughputs by 6,000 b/d compared to the same quarter of 2014 and by 10pc compared to the previous quarter, to 241,000 b/d. Shipments of Canadian and light US crudes to the refinery doubled compared to the previous quarter and increased during the quarter to roughly 30pc of the refinery's slate. But sharply lower global crude prices eroded the cost advantage of the feedstock to the refinery.

A majority of the refinery's employees remain on strike amid an impasse on local issues between the company and the United Steelworkers. LyondellBasell has continued to operate with backup staff and an unspecified number of union workers that have returned to work.