BP Shuts Down Gasoline Producing Unit to Reduce Sulfur Dioxides at Texas City Refinery

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Researched by Industrial Information Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). BP plc (NYSE:BP) (London, England), the world’s second largest oil and gas company, is currently performing project tie-ins on a major gasoline producing unit at its Texas City, Texas refinery that will reduce sulfur dioxides emitted into the atmosphere. BP voluntarily entered into an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency in January 2001 to reduce emissions at all of its U.S. refineries.

The project consists of installing a wet gas scrubber on an 115,000 barrel per day fluidized cat cracking unit to remove SO2 emissions from the regenerator flue gas. Jacobs Engineering Group Incorporated (NYSE:JEC ) (Pasadena, California) is providing engineering, procurement and construction services for the project. Unfortunately, consumers may feel the pinch in gasoline prices due to the lost production. The unit was shutdown May 19 for ten days to allow construction workers to tie-in the project. The $83 million scrubber is only $5 million over budget, not shocking considering the shortage of skilled craftsmen in North America.

The Texas City site is BP’s largest refinery sprawled over 1,200 acres and capable of processing 460,000 barrels per day of crude oil and turning into 10 million gallons per day of gasoline. The refinery employs approximately 1,800 workers.

Hurricane Rita ripped through the gulf coast in September 2005. The effects are still impacting the refinery to this day. The refinery was completely shutdown in anticipation of a direct hit from Hurricane Rita. This had never happened before. Fortunately, damage to production units was minimal, but did impact the asbestos lined insulation along the 27-mile steam system. After repairs, half the plant restarted in early 2006 while the remaining units are scheduled to restart late 2007 or early 2008.

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