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Released September 01, 2017 | SUGAR LAND
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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--As Tropical Storm Harvey drifted into Louisiana and then further northeast, eventually being downgraded to a tropical depression, some refineries and chemical-processing plants cautiously began to reopen their doors and power up their units. But the nation's largest refinery remains shuttered for at least two weeks, and at least one major pipeline operator said its facilities in the area are out of service.
IIR Energy has organized a summary of the storm's current and potential impact on the power, chemical, petroleum refining and gas processing assets in its path. Click here to download the Hurricane Harvey Impact Report.
Motiva Enterprises LLC (Houston, Texas) is expected to keep its entire 600,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, offline until mid-September due to area flooding. The facility is the largest refinery in the United States. For more information, see Industrial Info's plant profile.
But other refining and petrochemical facilities are restarting:
"Due to supply constraints caused by storm-related refinery shutdowns and the impact to Colonial's facilities west of Lake Charles, Colonial's Line 2, which transports primarily diesel and aviation fuels, will suspend service this evening," the company announced in a press release. "For the same reasons, we expect that Line 1, which transports gasoline and is currently operating at reduced rates, will suspend service [Thursday]. Once Colonial is able to ensure that its facilities are safe to operate and refiners in Lake Charles and points east have the ability to move product to Colonial, our system will resume operations."
Colonial Pipeline, like other major pipelines in the area, has been either throttled back or shut due to reduced supply, according to Reuters. Colonial Pipeline representatives told reporters that the lack of supply in Houston, will continue to slow its entire system, which delivers more than 3 million barrels of fuel daily, according to Reuters.
The reduced refining and pipeline capacity caused gas prices to jump nationwide in the days following Harvey's departure from Texas. In response, the U.S. Energy Department said on Thursday it would release 500,000 barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, according to Reuters. The oil will be sent to Phillips 66's refinery in Lake Charles, Louisiana, which has not been affected by the storm, according to a press release. See plant profile.
This marks the first emergency release from the reserve since 2012, according to Reuters. It includes 200,000 barrels of sweet crude and 300,000 barrels of sour crude oil, which Phillips 66 is required to replace at a later date.
BSEE: Much of Gulf's Oil, Gas Operations Remain Shut-in
Offshore oil and gas operators in the Gulf of Mexico are re-boarding platforms and rigs to assess their ability to resume normal operations following Harvey, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement's (BSEE) Hurricane Response Team. At this point, the BSEE reports no damage reports from oil and gas operators have been received.
According to BSEE, 236,115 barrels of oil equivalent per day remained shut-in on Thursday, which is about 13.49% of the Gulf's production of oil, while 568.09 million cubic feet per day of gas remained shut-in, which is about 17.64% of the Gulf's production of gas.
Arkema Chemical Plant Shuts Down Following Explosion in Crosby, Texas
Arkema Incorporated reported on an explosion at its chemicals plant in Crosby, Texas. Industrial Info is tracking all active projects at the facility. See plant profile.
"At approximately 2 a.m. CDT, we were notified by the Harris County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) of two explosions and black smoke coming from the Arkema plant in Crosby, Texas. Local officials had previously established an evacuation zone in an area 1.5 miles from our plant, based on their assessment of the situation. No injuries were reported.
"We continue to work closely with federal, state and local authorities to manage the situation. As we communicated in recent days, our site followed its hurricane preparation plan in advance of the recent hurricane and we had redundant contingency plans in place. However, unprecedented flooding overwhelmed our primary power and two sources of emergency backup power. As a result, we lost critical refrigeration of the products on site. Some of our organic peroxides products burn if not stored at low temperature."
The company stressed that it has been working with authorities to "manage the implications of this situation, and have communicated with the public the potential for product to explode and cause an intense fire."
The organic peroxides produced at the facility are extremely flammable, and the company and public officials agreed the best course of action is to let the fire burn itself out."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com/.
IIR Energy has organized a summary of the storm's current and potential impact on the power, chemical, petroleum refining and gas processing assets in its path. Click here to download the Hurricane Harvey Impact Report.
Motiva Enterprises LLC (Houston, Texas) is expected to keep its entire 600,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, offline until mid-September due to area flooding. The facility is the largest refinery in the United States. For more information, see Industrial Info's plant profile.
But other refining and petrochemical facilities are restarting:
- Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP (Indianapolis, Indiana) restarted its 14,500-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) refinery in San Antonio, Texas, on Tuesday evening. It had been offline from Friday, August 25, and Calumet expects to resume full throughput soon. See plant profile.
- Flint Hills Resources Limited Partnership (Wichita, Kansas) has begun restarting the West side of its 210,000-BBL/d refining complex in Corpus Christi, Texas. The site was shut down on August 24, and it is scheduled to return to normal operations by the middle of next week. See plant profile.
- CITGO Petroleum Corporation (Houston) was restarting the West side of its 30,000-BBL/d refining complex in Corpus Christi. The site was shut down on Thursday, August 24, and it is scheduled to return to normal operations by Monday, September 4. See plant profile.
- Targa Resources Partners LP (NYSE:TRGP) (Houston) was restarting its 200 million-standard-cubic-foot-per-day Stingray-Barracuda Natural Gas Processing Plant in Cameron, Louisiana. See plant profile.
- CITGO Petroleum Corporation was restarting the East side of its 165,000-BBL/d refining complex in Corpus Christi. The site was shut down on Thursday, August 24, and it was scheduled to return to normal operations in seven to 10 days. Industrial Info is tracking $30 million in project activity at the refinery, including a $10 million fluid catalytic cracker (FCCU 1) upgrade in 2018. See plant profile.
- INEOS Olefins & Polymers was restarting operations at its 875 million-pound-per-year polyethylene and 320 million-pound-per-year polypropylene units in La Porte, Texas. The plant does not seem to have experienced flooding or other issues. Industrial Info is tracking $398 million in active projects at the facility. See plant profile. Targa Resources Partners LP restarted its 400 million-standard-cubic-foot-per-day and 50,000-BBL/d Silver Oak Natural Gas Cryogenic Processing Plant in Tuleta, Texas, early on Thursday, August 31. Sources confirmed that the plant was operating at reduced rates due to lack of feedstock. Its full restart date is still unknown. See plant profile.
- Lone Star NGL, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners (NYSE:ETP) (Dallas, Texas), has restarted two of the four trains at its 420,000-BBL/d NGL fractionation plant in Mont Belvieu. Only two trains were able to be restarted due to a lack of nitrogen. All four had been shut down as a precautionary measure. See plant profile.
- Phillips 66's (NYSE:PSX) (Houston) 259,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) refinery in Sweeny, Texas, remained shut down due to flooding. Plant personnel have indicated that once flood waters have receded, they will have a better estimate of when restart will begin. See plant profile.
- ExxonMobil Chemical Company shut down its 2 billion-pound-per-year polyethylene plant in Beaumont, Texas. It was unknown how long the units were expected to remain offline. See plant profile.
- LyondellBasell Industries NV (NYSE:LYB) (Houston) shut down its polymers plant at its Chocolate Bayou Polymers complex in Beaumont. The plant produces 400 million pounds per year of polyethylene in HDPE units 1 and 2. Industrial Info is tracking $17.5 million in active projects at the facility. See plant profile.
- Total Petrochemicals shut down its polypropylene plant in La Porte. The plant produces 2.7 billion pounds per year of polypropylene. See plant profile.
- OCI Beaumont LLC shut down its 700,000-metric-ton-per-year methanol and 250,000 metric-ton-per-year ammonia units at its plant in Nederland, Texas. The site is home to a $2.2 billion methanol addition project that is expected to be completed in November. See plant profile.
- Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC (The Woodlands, Texas) shut down its 2.29 billion-pound-per-year polypropylene plant in Pasadena, Texas. Industrial Info is tracking more than $6 billion in active projects at the facility, including the proposed construction of a 3.3 billion-pound-per-year ethylene cracker and derivative unit complex. See plant profile.
"Due to supply constraints caused by storm-related refinery shutdowns and the impact to Colonial's facilities west of Lake Charles, Colonial's Line 2, which transports primarily diesel and aviation fuels, will suspend service this evening," the company announced in a press release. "For the same reasons, we expect that Line 1, which transports gasoline and is currently operating at reduced rates, will suspend service [Thursday]. Once Colonial is able to ensure that its facilities are safe to operate and refiners in Lake Charles and points east have the ability to move product to Colonial, our system will resume operations."
Colonial Pipeline, like other major pipelines in the area, has been either throttled back or shut due to reduced supply, according to Reuters. Colonial Pipeline representatives told reporters that the lack of supply in Houston, will continue to slow its entire system, which delivers more than 3 million barrels of fuel daily, according to Reuters.
The reduced refining and pipeline capacity caused gas prices to jump nationwide in the days following Harvey's departure from Texas. In response, the U.S. Energy Department said on Thursday it would release 500,000 barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, according to Reuters. The oil will be sent to Phillips 66's refinery in Lake Charles, Louisiana, which has not been affected by the storm, according to a press release. See plant profile.
This marks the first emergency release from the reserve since 2012, according to Reuters. It includes 200,000 barrels of sweet crude and 300,000 barrels of sour crude oil, which Phillips 66 is required to replace at a later date.
BSEE: Much of Gulf's Oil, Gas Operations Remain Shut-in
Offshore oil and gas operators in the Gulf of Mexico are re-boarding platforms and rigs to assess their ability to resume normal operations following Harvey, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement's (BSEE) Hurricane Response Team. At this point, the BSEE reports no damage reports from oil and gas operators have been received.
According to BSEE, 236,115 barrels of oil equivalent per day remained shut-in on Thursday, which is about 13.49% of the Gulf's production of oil, while 568.09 million cubic feet per day of gas remained shut-in, which is about 17.64% of the Gulf's production of gas.
Arkema Chemical Plant Shuts Down Following Explosion in Crosby, Texas
Arkema Incorporated reported on an explosion at its chemicals plant in Crosby, Texas. Industrial Info is tracking all active projects at the facility. See plant profile.
"At approximately 2 a.m. CDT, we were notified by the Harris County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) of two explosions and black smoke coming from the Arkema plant in Crosby, Texas. Local officials had previously established an evacuation zone in an area 1.5 miles from our plant, based on their assessment of the situation. No injuries were reported.
"We continue to work closely with federal, state and local authorities to manage the situation. As we communicated in recent days, our site followed its hurricane preparation plan in advance of the recent hurricane and we had redundant contingency plans in place. However, unprecedented flooding overwhelmed our primary power and two sources of emergency backup power. As a result, we lost critical refrigeration of the products on site. Some of our organic peroxides products burn if not stored at low temperature."
The company stressed that it has been working with authorities to "manage the implications of this situation, and have communicated with the public the potential for product to explode and cause an intense fire."
The organic peroxides produced at the facility are extremely flammable, and the company and public officials agreed the best course of action is to let the fire burn itself out."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com/.
