Deep freeze triggers US Gulf Coast refinery shutdown
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Texas refineries report malfunctions as equipment freezes
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Some refineries performing overhauls planned months ago
By Erwin Seba
HOUSTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - TotalEnergies' 238,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, was examining units after a plantwide power outage on Tuesday morning as a winter storm brought frigid temperatures to the U.S. Gulf Coast, sources familiar with the company's operations said.
Flint Hills Resources said its 343,000-bpd refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, sustained significant impacts from unseasonably cold weather, especially at its West Plant where instrumentation needed to operate equipment was affected by freezing rain overnight.
The Koch Industries subsidiary is performing planned maintenance at the refinery's East Plant.
Valero Energy Corp began a planned overhaul on the large crude distillation unit (CDU) at its 335,000-bpd refinery in Port Arthur on Monday, people familiar with plant operations said on Tuesday.
In addition to shutting the 210,000-bpd AVU-146 CDU, Valero brought down a coker and a vacuum distillation unit (VDU) associated with AVU-146, the sources said. The work is planned to take 45 days to complete.
Units across half of Valero's Port Arthur refinery will be affected by the shutdown of AVU-146, which is the larger of two CDUs that begin the refining process by breaking down crude oil into feedstocks for all other units at the refinery.
The Valero shutdown, which was planned months ago, occurred as refineries across the U.S. Gulf Coast sought to maintain operations amid temperatures that have plummeted to unseasonable lows.
Three refineries in Port Arthur, including Motiva Enterprises' 626,000-bpd plant, the nation's largest refinery, have major units shut. The Motiva refinery began a crude unit-coker overhaul on Jan. 8.
Exxon Mobil Corp warned on Monday of flaring from its refining and petrochemical complex in Baytown, Texas, may be possible due to the cold weather.
The company reported to state pollution regulators upsets at the Baytown Olefins Plant on Monday and the Baytown Chemical Plant on Sunday.
In a regulatory filing, Marathon Petroleum Corp reported an upset on Monday on the 64,000-bpd residual hydrotreater at its 593,000-bpd Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas.
Delek reported a malfunction due to cold temperatures on Sunday at its 73,000-bpd refinery in Big Spring, Texas.
Valero notified regulators on Sunday after upsets at its 195,000-bpd McKee refinery in Sunray, Texas, which is north of Amarillo, Texas. (Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Paul Simao)
