Motiva's Convent refinery restarting crude unit, reformer - sources

(Adds Motiva statement, background)

HOUSTON, April 14 (Reuters) - Motiva Enterprises was restarting the larger of two crude distillation units and a reformer on Thursday at its 235,000 barrel per day (bpd) Convent, Louisiana, refinery, sources familiar with plant operations said.

The l30,000 bpd CDU, called VPS-1, was shut in late February as part of a planned multi-unit overhaul. Motiva had targeted Friday for the crude unit's restart. Both VPS-1 and the reformer are expected to be in operation and producing test products by the weekend, the sources said.

A Motiva spokesman said that a unit restart was underway at the Convent refinery.

"Startup procedures have begun for a unit at Motiva Convent following a period of planned maintenance," said Motiva spokesman Ray Fisher. "For reasons of commercial confidentiality, we do not provide details about the operational status of individual units or information on supply."

Once the products coming from the units meet specificiations, the CDU and reformer will ramp up to planned production levels.

The reformer was shut in late March to do maintenace while VPS-1 was shut. During the overhaul, the refinery's 45,000 bpd heavy oil hydrocracker, called the H-Oil Unit, was also shut. It restarted in mid-March.

One purpose of the overhaul was to prepare the refinery for integration with Motiva's 238,000 bpd refinery in Norco, Louisiana in 2017.

VPS-1 and 100,000 bpd VPS-2 do the initial refining for crude oil coming into the refinery and provide feedstock for all production units.

The refomer converts refining byproducts into gasoline components. (Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)