Motiva Enterprises LLC postpones Norco Refinery Alkylation Unit Upgrade

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Motiva Enterprises LLC decided last week to postpone a capital project at their Norco Refinery in Louisiana. An upgrade was scheduled to begin in September 2003 at a cost of $6 million on the 16,000 BBL/d Alkylation Unit. Currently, Motiva is focusing on other projects in its refining system and the upgrade to the Norco Alkylation unit will most likely not be done for several years.

Current projects already in the engineering phase at other Motiva Plants include a new Hydrogen Unit, a Coker Flue Gas Scrubber Addition, SRU Oxygen Enrichment Addition and H-Oils unit upgrade. These projects alone are estimated to total over $120 million and are scheduled to start over the next 18 months.

Motiva owns four plants in North America The 240,000 BBL/d Norco Refinery located in Louisiana, the 230,000 BBL/d Convent Refinery located in Louisiana, the 229,000 BBL/d Port Arthur Refinery located in Texas and the 175,000 BBL/d Delaware City Refinery located in Delaware. Motiva Enterprises LLC employs close to 3,000 people at the four refineries.