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Released January 17, 2024 | SUGAR LAND
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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The U.S. Petroleum Refining, Chemical Processing and Oil & Gas industries are littered with shutdowns, malfunctions and outages as a winter freeze continued to hover over much of the country. While temperatures slowly warmed over the southernmost areas of the continental U.S., producers in crucial areas such as the Bakken Shale were struggling with frozen and damaged equipment. To make matters worse, another winter storm Wednesday morning was dumping snow and frozen rain onto the Pacific and Interior Northwest, according to NBC, and was moving east.
TotalEnergies SE (NYSE:TTE) (Courbevoie, France) was examining several units at its 238,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, which suffered a plantwide power outage late Monday or early Tuesday. It was not yet known when the facility would be restarted; it already had endured shutdowns last week on a large crude distillation unit (CDU) and a large vacuum distillation unit (VDU), although both were restarted within a day. TotalEnergies also restarted its 150,000-BBL/d Atmospheric Crude Unit (ACU) 1 and 40,000-BBL/d ACU 2 on Saturday, January 13, after shutting down Thursday, January 11, due to steam loss. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Petroleum Refining Plant Database can learn more from a detailed plant profile.
Motiva Enterprises LLC (Houston) has shut down several units at its refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, including its Fluidic Catalytic-Cracker Unit (FCCU) 2, Delayed Coker Unit 1 and Hydrotreater Unit 4. Motiva already was at work on a turnaround of Delayed Coker Unit 2, which started Monday, January 8, and was expected to wrap up in the second week of February. It is not known at this time how the freeze would affect the ongoing maintenance. Subscribers can learn more from a detailed plant profile.
Other refineries to be affected by the freeze include Flint Hills Resources LLC's 343,000-BBL/d West Plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, where freezing rain Tuesday night affected crucial equipment and forced a shutdown. Flint Hills is a subsidiary of Koch Industries Incorporated (Wichita, Kansas). Subscribers can learn more from a detailed plant profile.
But the industry heard some good news Wednesday morning when Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) (Spring, Texas) announced it had returned a gasoline-producing FCCU and a coker unit at its 564,440-BBL/d refinery in Baytown, Texas, to normal operations, following a weather-induced malfunction reported Monday night. Subscribers can learn more from a detailed plant profile.
Click on the image at right for a map of weather trends across the U.S. Southwest, featuring PADD III refineries and petrochemical plants, from Industrial Info's GeoXplorer tool.
On the chemical side, LyondellBasell (NYSE:LYB) (Rotterdam, Netherlands) shut down its 2.5 million-pound-per-year olefins unit at its chemicals plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, as a precaution Tuesday. The unit is expected to remain offline for a 60-day turnaround scheduled to begin Monday, January 29. LyondellBasell expects to restart the unit in late March. Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Chemical Processing Project and Plant databases can learn more from a detailed project report for the turnaround and a plant profile.
For a look at facilities that announced closures--or decided to stay open--on Monday and Tuesday, including the South Texas Project Nuclear Power Plant and LACC LLC's 2.2 million-pound-per-year ethylene plant in Westlake, Louisiana, see January 15, 2024 article - Winter Storm Rattles U.S. Power, Chemical, Refining Plants; and January 16, 2024 article - U.S. Refinery, Gas and Chemical Plants Wrestle with Winter Winds.
North Dakota's Oil Output Halved
The North Dakota Pipeline Authority announced Tuesday the state's oil production fell by half due to extreme temperatures and resulting operational problems. Earlier this week, North Dakota's oil output dropped between 600,000 and 650,000 barrels per day; in October, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported the state's overall output stood at 1.27 million barrels per day.
Local news outlets across North Dakota reported temperatures across the state were hovering around zero degrees Fahrenheit earlier this week, with Williston, a major city within the Bakken Shale area, reporting its coldest wind chills since 2001. Dickinson, a city further south in the Bakken, saw its coldest temperatures since 1990.
The National Weather Service says hazardous weather warnings are in place for portions of North Dakota through Monday. But U.S. consumers need not worry: The North Dakota Pipeline Authority said Canadian gas continued to flow to the U.S. midcontinent through the Northern Border pipeline, replacing lost Bakken volume, according to Reuters.
Industrial Info is tracking about $1.14 billion worth of active projects within the Bakken Shale. Subscribers can click here for a list of detailed project reports and click here for a list of related plant profiles.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).
TotalEnergies SE (NYSE:TTE) (Courbevoie, France) was examining several units at its 238,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, which suffered a plantwide power outage late Monday or early Tuesday. It was not yet known when the facility would be restarted; it already had endured shutdowns last week on a large crude distillation unit (CDU) and a large vacuum distillation unit (VDU), although both were restarted within a day. TotalEnergies also restarted its 150,000-BBL/d Atmospheric Crude Unit (ACU) 1 and 40,000-BBL/d ACU 2 on Saturday, January 13, after shutting down Thursday, January 11, due to steam loss. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Petroleum Refining Plant Database can learn more from a detailed plant profile.
Motiva Enterprises LLC (Houston) has shut down several units at its refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, including its Fluidic Catalytic-Cracker Unit (FCCU) 2, Delayed Coker Unit 1 and Hydrotreater Unit 4. Motiva already was at work on a turnaround of Delayed Coker Unit 2, which started Monday, January 8, and was expected to wrap up in the second week of February. It is not known at this time how the freeze would affect the ongoing maintenance. Subscribers can learn more from a detailed plant profile.
Other refineries to be affected by the freeze include Flint Hills Resources LLC's 343,000-BBL/d West Plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, where freezing rain Tuesday night affected crucial equipment and forced a shutdown. Flint Hills is a subsidiary of Koch Industries Incorporated (Wichita, Kansas). Subscribers can learn more from a detailed plant profile.
But the industry heard some good news Wednesday morning when Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) (Spring, Texas) announced it had returned a gasoline-producing FCCU and a coker unit at its 564,440-BBL/d refinery in Baytown, Texas, to normal operations, following a weather-induced malfunction reported Monday night. Subscribers can learn more from a detailed plant profile.
Click on the image at right for a map of weather trends across the U.S. Southwest, featuring PADD III refineries and petrochemical plants, from Industrial Info's GeoXplorer tool.On the chemical side, LyondellBasell (NYSE:LYB) (Rotterdam, Netherlands) shut down its 2.5 million-pound-per-year olefins unit at its chemicals plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, as a precaution Tuesday. The unit is expected to remain offline for a 60-day turnaround scheduled to begin Monday, January 29. LyondellBasell expects to restart the unit in late March. Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Chemical Processing Project and Plant databases can learn more from a detailed project report for the turnaround and a plant profile.
For a look at facilities that announced closures--or decided to stay open--on Monday and Tuesday, including the South Texas Project Nuclear Power Plant and LACC LLC's 2.2 million-pound-per-year ethylene plant in Westlake, Louisiana, see January 15, 2024 article - Winter Storm Rattles U.S. Power, Chemical, Refining Plants; and January 16, 2024 article - U.S. Refinery, Gas and Chemical Plants Wrestle with Winter Winds.
North Dakota's Oil Output Halved
The North Dakota Pipeline Authority announced Tuesday the state's oil production fell by half due to extreme temperatures and resulting operational problems. Earlier this week, North Dakota's oil output dropped between 600,000 and 650,000 barrels per day; in October, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported the state's overall output stood at 1.27 million barrels per day.
Local news outlets across North Dakota reported temperatures across the state were hovering around zero degrees Fahrenheit earlier this week, with Williston, a major city within the Bakken Shale area, reporting its coldest wind chills since 2001. Dickinson, a city further south in the Bakken, saw its coldest temperatures since 1990.
The National Weather Service says hazardous weather warnings are in place for portions of North Dakota through Monday. But U.S. consumers need not worry: The North Dakota Pipeline Authority said Canadian gas continued to flow to the U.S. midcontinent through the Northern Border pipeline, replacing lost Bakken volume, according to Reuters.
Industrial Info is tracking about $1.14 billion worth of active projects within the Bakken Shale. Subscribers can click here for a list of detailed project reports and click here for a list of related plant profiles.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).
