Texas Coastal Refineries, Petchem Plants Brace for Hurricane Harvey

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Refinery and Chemical Processing operations along the Texas Gulf Coast were gearing up and hunkering down in anticipation of Hurricane Harvey, which was forecast to make landfall late Friday or early Saturday.

Harvey, which had strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane as of mid-day on Thursday, with top winds of nearly 85 miles per hour, was expected to continue strengthening into a major hurricane before hitting the mid-Texas coast. A hurricane warning was issued for the coast from Port Mansfield to Sargent, Texas. The National Hurricane Center said a storm surge warning was issued for Port Mansfield to San Luis Pass. In addition to generating a dangerous storm surge, Harvey is likely to dump 12 to 20 inches of rain over the middle and upper Texas coast through next Wednesday, with isolated maximum amounts of 35 inches.

Widespread evacuations were ordered along the coast ahead of the hurricane, including Calhoun and San Patricio counties.

Hurricane Harvey has caused the shutdown of some ethylene plants along the Texas Gulf Coast with a combined capacity of 7.2 billion pounds per year. It has also caused refineries with a combined crude capacity of 516,000 barrels per day to go offline.

The Texas Gulf Coast is home to 17 major refinery complexes with a combined capacity of about 4.7 million barrels per day, according to Industrial Info's plant database. It is also home to more than 130 petrochemical plants.

Refiners in Corpus Christi, which was likely to take the brunt of the storm, began shutdown procedures on Thursday. These include:

• Citgo Petroleum Corporation's (Houston, Texas) 195,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) refining complex
• Magellan Midstream Partners LP's (NYSE:MMP) (Tulsa, Oklahoma) 50,000-BBL/d condensate splitters
• Flint Hills Resources LP's (Wichita, Kansas) 300,000-BBL/d refinery

Area chemical producers were also shutting down operations, including:

• LyondellBasell's (NYSE:LYB) (Houston) 2.5 billion-pound-per-year olefins unit
• Formosa Plastics Corporation USA's (Livingston, New Jersey) Point Comfort ethylene units, with a combined capacity of 3.3 billion pounds per year
• Occidental Chemical's (Houston) 3.9 billion-pound-per-year ethylene dichloride plant in Gregory, along with the associated chlor-alkali, caustic and vinyl chloride monomers units

While chemical facilities in the Corpus Christi area were shutting down, Houston-area chemical plants were focused on increasing personnel for the weekend and into next week. The extra staffing is being used to move equipment as necessary to keep ditches and drains clear to prevent flooding.

INEOS Olefins & Polymers USA (Houston) was preparing the 1.7 billion-pound-per-year Olefins 1 and 1.7 billion-pound-per-year Olefins 2 ethylene units at its site in Chocolate Bayou for the arrival of Harvey, but planned to keep the facility operational.

Also, LyondellBasell planned to keep its olefins plant in La Porte operational through the duration of the storm.

Refinery operators not in the direct path of the hurricane were expected to make final decisions whether to remain running by Friday morning. Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO) (San Antonio, Texas) planned to keep its 225,000-BBL/d refinery in Texas City open for the time being, but would make a final decision on Friday morning whether to maintain operations. Phillips 66's (NYSE:PSX) (Houston) 247,000-BBL/d refinery in Sweeny was fully operational on Thursday, with expectations on a final decision by Friday whether to remain up and running.

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