Suncor’s Commerce City refinery is returning to full capacity

Suncor Energy’s Commerce City refinery is returning to full-scale operations after a shutdown that lasted more than two months.

The company is restarting Plants 1 and 3 in the coming days, according to an alert Friday from its community notification system. Suncor restarted the refinery’s Plant 2 on Feb. 9.

Suncor described the renewed operations as a “progressive restart” because it can take several days for equipment to heat up and run at full capacity.

“Over the coming weeks, we’ll be safely and steadily increasing production with an expected return to full operations by late March,” Suncor spokeswoman Loa Esquilin Garcia said in an email to The Denver Post.

Suncor announced in late December that it would cease operations to repair equipment that was damaged during a deep freeze and subsequent fires around Christmas. The shutdown drove up gas prices in Colorado, and it caused the refinery to commit multiple violations of its air and water permits that regulate how much pollution it can release.