Chevron U.S.A. said Tuesday it has submitted an environmental permit application to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality for the construction of a major gasoline production unit at its refinery in Pascagoula, Miss.
The new construction could increase gasoline production at the refinery by approximately 15 percent.
According to refinery General Manager Roland Kell, the new Continuous Catalyst Regeneration (CCR) unit would update refinery technology by replacing two process units constructed about 30 years ago.
Chevron has contracted WorleyParsons to complete engineering for the CCR project. If approved, project construction would likely begin the first quarter of 2008.
Chevron's environmental permit application also includes several smaller projects that would potentially increase equipment reliability and availability. These projects could improve the refinery's gasoline production by about 750,000 gallons per day. Neither the CCR project nor the smaller projects would increase the refinery's crude oil capacity.
The Pascagoula Refinery is Chevron's largest wholly owned petroleum refinery, processing an average of 330,000 barrels of crude oil per day and producing a variety of transportation fuels and other refined products.