Hydroprocessing with drum blanketing gas compositional control

A selective catalytic naphtha hydrodesulfurization process operated in the presence of a hydrogen-containing treat gas in a process unit having a surge drum equipped for gas blanketing, which comprises blanketing the naphtha in the surge drum with a blanketing gas containing CO and/or CO2 at concentrations which result in concentrations of CO and/or CO2 in the naphtha at which the activity of a catalyst of the hydrodesulfurization process is maintained, wherein the catalyst comprises about 1 to 10 wt. % Mo03;

• 0.1 to 5 wt. % CoO;
• a Co/Mo atomic ratio of about 0.1 to 1.0;
• and a median pore diameter of about 6 to 20 nm;
• a Mo03 surface concentration in g Mo03/m2 of 0.5×10-4 to 3×10-4;
• and an average particle size diameter of less than about 2.0 mm;
• and
• wherein the process is carried out in a two stage process in which the naphtha boiling range feed is contacted with hydrogen over a first hydrotreating catalyst in the vapor phase to remove at least 70 wt. % of the sulfur, to produce a first stage effluent which is cooled to condense the naphtha vapor which is then separated from the H2S containing gas and passed with hydrogen into the a second vapor phase stage at a temperature at least 10° C. greater than in the first stage and at a space velocity at least 1.5 times greater than in the first stage, to remove at least 80 wt. % of the remaining sulfur from the naphtha and form a desulfurized naphtha vapor.