OIL ON TROUBLED WATERSPerhaps this letter from the VP Business Development will help to smooth some ruffled feathers, stop the schoolyard takedown, and help us all survive these critical moments, with apologies for the mixed metaphors ...
Good morning,
We will be sending our stakeholders more frequent updates on our progress as we strive to bring our 1st renewable diesel refinery into production.
As of last week, we have started the intense commissioning process. During the commissioning there are numerous processes that we will need to carefully test and safely start-up. The 1st process to be commissioned in the hot oil heating system. This includes our custom fabricated hot oil boiler and introducing approximately $410,000 of specialized thermal oil. This process is used to heat piping, tanks, used motor oil, reactors, fractional towers, etc. It is a key component to our proprietary process and brings many dangers and risks during the start-up. Therefore we are taking extra precautions to make sure the system is complete by all the trades and hydraulically tested for leaks. The piping has passed the tests and has been drained and is now being purged with hot air to make sure no water is left in the lines. This will take approximately 2-3 days to complete and we will then begin to fill the system with the thermal fluid.
There is still construction being completed on the other process as well as 3rd party supplier and contractors. We are amazed at how good the refinery is looking after 9 months of construction, repairs, retrofits and clean-up. It is impressive to see the high quality of work that the contractors have been doing and the in-depth engineering that has been completed.
Cielo is experiencing a fantastic and game changing summer and we hope you are enjoying the summer as well.
Best regards,
Michael