Refinery Status: Trainer Refinery to be Running by End of Sept.

09/07/2012| 12:59pm US/Eastern

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The following table lists unplanned and planned production outages at U.S. refineries as reported by Dow Jones Newswire's. The information is compiled from both official and unofficial refining sources and doesn't purport to be a comprehensive list.

Delta Airlines (>> Delta Air Lines, Inc.) said Sept. 6 that the 185,000 barrel-a-day Trainer refinery in Pennsylvania will be operational by the end of September.

BP PLC (>> BP plc) restarted the ultracker at its 400,780 barrel-a-day refinery in Texas City, according to a government filing Sept. 6. The company did not say when the unit went out. A company spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Phillips 66 (>> Phillips 66) said Sept. 6 that power was restored to the Alliance Refinery in Belle Chasse, La. and workers are in the process of restarting the 247,000 barrel-a-day is in facility following Hurricane Isaac. The company said it expects the refinery "will be operating by mid-month."

Valero Energy Corp. (>> Valero Energy Corporation) Chief Executive Bill Klesse said work on a diesel-making unit at the company's St. Charles refinery in Norco, La., is now likely to be completed in early 2013, rather than later this year as the company had previously estimated, in part due to Hurricane Isaac. The unit is still on track to be operational in the second quarter of 2013.

Both of the refineries Valero Energy Corp (>> Valero Energy Corporation) had shut down ahead of Isaac are in the process of restarting, company spokesman Bill Day said. Sept. 5. He said "most production units" are back in operation at the 205,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Norco and the 125,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Meraux, though some are still being brought back. The crude unit at the Meraux facility was shut for repairs prior to the storm, and has not been restarted, he said.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) and Motiva Enterprises said Sept. 5 that their 235,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Convent, La. and their 233,500 barrel-a-day refinery in Norco., La. are restarting after Isaac and operating at reduced or near-normal rates.

Paramount Petroleum Corp. reported flaring at its 84,500 barrel-a-day Los Angeles County refinery Sept. 4 due to a compressor failure, according to a filing with pollution regulators.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (>> Exxon Mobil Corporation) said Tuesday that its refinery in Chalmette, La., is in the process of restarting after being temporarily shut in advance of Hurricane Isaac. The 192,500 barrel-a-day refinery is a joint venture between Exxon and Petroleos de Venezuela. Exxon also said it is working to bring production back to normal levels at its 502,500 barrel-a-day refinery in Baton Rouge. The company began running the refinery at reduced rates as part of its preparation for the storm.

Marathon Petroleum said its 464,000 barrel-a-day Garyville Refinery has returned to normal operations following Hurricane Isaac.

Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) and Motiva Enterprises said Sept. 2 that the Norco, La. refinery is restarting some units while others are operating at reduced rates. The Convent refinery is in continues its post-storm startup process, and will operate some unites at reduced rates while electrical power issues are being resolved. still dealing with power issues. Convent, La. and Norco, La. as a precautionary measure part of an established hurricane-preparation plan. Together the two refineries have a capacity of 468,000 barrels-of-oil per day. The company did not say what rates the refineries were operating at.

Tesoro Corp's (>> Tesoro Corporation) Wilmington, Calif. refinery experienced a brief power outage but is returning to normal operations, a spokesman said Sept. 1. The 103,800 barrel-a-day refinery flared sulfur dioxide due to the outage.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (>> Exxon Mobil Corporation)'s Beaumont, TX refinery is running normally after flaring due to a line leak, a company spokesman said Aug. 31.

PBF Energy reported on Aug. 28 flaring at its 190,000 barrel-a-day Delaware City refinery Tuesday, according to a government filing. The refinery released over 100 pounds of sulfur dioxide in an "intermittent flaring" episode from an unspecified unit, according to the filing with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

Flint Hills Resources Inc. said in a filing Tuesday that a leak in its 285,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas is ongoing and attempts to fix it have not been successful. A vacuum truck is being used to control the leak.

Chevron Corp. (>> Chevron Corporation) reported flaring at its 245,000 barrel-a-day Richmond, Calif. refinery Aug. 28. A spokesman said Tuesday morning's flare was in the gasoline-making fluid catalytic cracking unit and lasted a few minutes.

Total Petrochemicals Inc. reported emissions that occurred while bringing units online at its Port Arthur refinery, but said in a filing Monday with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that the units were stabilized quickly. About 2,354 pounds of sulfur dioxide were emitted at the 225,500-barrel-a-day refinery during start-up activities at two units.

PFB Energy said in a filing Aug. 27 that its 182,200 barrel-a-day refinery in Delaware City flared more than 500 pounds of sulfur dioxide due to a mechanical failure Sunday evening.

Phillips 66 on Aug. 25 reported an unscheduled process unit shutdown resulted in flaring of sulfur dioxide at its 120,200 barrel-a-day refinery in Rodeo, Calif.

Pasadena Refining Systems Inc. said Aug. 24 that its 100,000 barrel-a-day refinery released 14,000 pounds of particulate matter from its fluid catalytic cracking unit.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (>> Exxon Mobil Corporation) said Aug. 24 equipment failure would impact production at its 344,500 barrel-a-day refinery in Beaumont, Texas, according to a government filing made public Friday.

The company also said Aug. 24 that the crude distillation unit of the Beaumont refinery was back to normal after an instrumentation failure resulted in nearly 3,000 pounds of sulfur dioxide being released on Aug. 23.

Phillips 66 (>> Phillips 66) said equipment failure on Aug. 23 caused a release of hydrogen sulfide at its 306,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Roxana, Ill.

BP Plc. (>> BP plc) said Aug. 20 the ultracracker at its refinery in Texas City, Texas, will resume normal operations after a compressor trip caused it to malfunction the day before.

Tesoro Corp. (>> Tesoro Corporation) said Aug. 19 a tripped unit caused sulfur dioxide remissions at its refinery in Wilmington, Cali. The company did not specify which unit had the trouble.

Delek Holdings USA said Aug. 18 an electrical storm caused a power outage at its refinery in Tyler, Texas.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (>> Exxon Mobil Corporation) said on Aug. 16 its refinery in Beaumont, Texas, resumed operations after an electrical outage the day before. Exxon still expected to meet its contractual supply commitments, according to the company's filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Royal Dutch Shell (>> Royal Dutch Shell Plc) said Aug. 15 that a mechanical failure occurred at its refinery in Martinez, Ca., resulting in more than 100 pounds of sulfur dioxide being emitted. A fire broke out at a processing unit in the same refinery on Aug. 13.

Citgo Petroleum said Aug. 14 that the FCCU at its refinery in Lemont, Ill., was shuttered with no estimate for restart. The unit had gone down for unplanned repair on July 28.

Citgo said Aug. 10 that workers were putting back online a compressor that tripped at the coking unit of its refinery in Lemont, Ill.

Sunoco Inc.'s (>> Sunoco, Inc.) Alkylation Unit 869 returned to service on Aug. 9 after going into circulation mode on Aug. 3 to facilitate compressor repair, a filing to environmental regulators made available on Aug. 10 said.

Pasadena Refining Systems Inc. on Aug. 10 reports flaring of off-spec product at its Pasadena, Texas, refinery.

Valero Energy Inc. (>> Valero Energy Corporation) on Aug. 10 said an FCCU at its St. Charles refinery in Norco, La., will return to service before the end of August. It was shut on Aug. 10 for unplanned repairs.

A Bloomberg report on Aug. 8 said Chevron's (>> Chevron Corporation) fire-struck Richmond, Calif., refinery is operating at about 60% of capacity after the Aug. 6 fire that shut only the plant's CDU.

The Borger Refinery in Borger, Texas, reported a process upset on Aug. 8 listing Areas C and D as the sources of emissions; no other details were provided in a filing to environmental regulators.

HollyFrontier Corp. (>> HollyFrontier Corp) on Aug. 8 said repairs to the fire-struck diesel hydrotreating unit at its Tulsa East refinery in Okla., would take six to eight weeks. The fire and shutdown occurred on Aug. 2.

Citgo Petroleum Corp. on Aug. 8 said the FCCU shut for unplanned repair at its Lemont, Ill., refinery on July 28 is in restart mode.

BP-Husky will begin four weeks of scheduled maintenance at an FCCU and coker unit compressors on Sept. 13, a person familiar with operations at the plant said on Aug. 7.

For more detailed information, search Dow Jones Newswire using the code N/REF.

 
Operator   Refinery    Capacity   Description                   Restart 
                       (in 000s 
                       bbl/day) 
UNPLANNED 
 
CANADA 
 
CARIBBEAN 
 
EAST COAST 
 
PBF      Delaware      190     Refinery reported 100 lbs of sulfur 
Energy   DE                    dioxide released from unspecified unit 
                               Aug. 28 
 
                               Mechanical failure caused sulfur 
                               dioxide emissions Aug. 27. 
 
Sunoco   Phila. PA     330.0  Alkylation Unit 869 resumed 
                              service on Aug 9; it was placed 
                              on circulation mode on Aug 3 
                              for compressor repair. 
 
 
GULF COAST 
 
Borger   Borger, TX    146.0  Refinery reports upset at un- 
                              specified unit(s); filing lists 
                              Areas C and D of the plant as 
                              sources of emissions. 
 
BP PLC   Texas City TX 400    Restarted Ultracracker Sept. 6 
 
Flint Hills  Corpus   285.0   Refinery reported ongoing leak being 
Resources    Christi          controlled with vacuum truck. 

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