Motiva Cancels Plans to Expand Port Arthur Refiner

[Nyogtha]

Motiva has cancelled plans to spend additional $US billions to expand their refinery in Port Arthur, TX - which is the largest single refinery in the USA. Saudi Aramco, the sole owner of Motiva, cites experiences from Hurricane Harvey for the change in plans. Saudi Aramco now plans to expand its refining and marketing footprint in the US through acquisitions, and say plans for a petrochemical complex are still ongoing.

https://www-chron-com.cdn.ampproject.org...ur-12965998.php

Additonally, flare emissions at petroleum refineries are being drastically reduced. FWIW this was my final project design at MPC Garyville, LA before I retired.

http://www.politico.com/sponsor-content/2018/05/refiners-pioneer-new-technology

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: Nyogtha
Additonally, flare emissions at petroleum refineries are being drastically reduced. FWIW this was my final project design at MPC Garyville, LA before I retired.

http://www.politico.com/sponsor-content/2018/05/refiners-pioneer-new-technology


I read that article bitter sweet...no-one who works in energy WANTs to pollute. We all try to do things more efficiently and more friendly.

But are painted as demons across so much of society.

 

[MNgopher]

In regards to the article on reducing flaring, they weren't kidding about the flaring at the flint hills pine bend refinery being another beacon for the airport. I lived just over 7 miles west of the refinery growing up, and it was pretty normal to be able to see a pulsing glow to the east from the flaring at night.

And to be blunt, the reason Flint Hills installed their system isn't as simple as the refinery wanting to reduce flaring to reduce pollution in the name of efficiency or being a good neighbor - in that case, they were caught with a whole suite of pollution violations in the mid 1990's involving groundwater, surface water, and air pollution and in order to settle the issues, agreed to make major changes to their operations - including the reduction in flaring. And when they were caught, they fought every improvement tooth and nail.

While in the end, the reduction in flaring along with many other improvements have made the refinery a much better neighbor, in the past, they most certainly were not -and fought to stay that way for many years.

 

[Nyogtha]

MPC did the real leg work on this along with John Zink, at least while I was involved. It was much like the FCCU emissions reduction work I was involved in 2002-2003, where MPC was in the forefront with the FCCU catalyst & additive companies.

However it's notable Koch Industries is the parent company of Flint Hills Resources, and Koch Industries purchased John Zink a couple of decades ago.

 

[MNgopher]

It was around this time that the refinery name changed to be under the Flint Hills Resources banner rather than the Koch banner. Even though it is just a subsidiary of Koch, the Flint Hills name has a better reputation in this area since it was after they cleaned up their operation.

For folks who have never seen it (you likely have if you've flown into MSP airport), it is impressive to see a refinery of this size located in a state with zero oil production wells. The refinery was always positioned to refine low grade, heavy sour crude oils from Canada, brought in via pipeline. It can refine roughly 290,000 barrels of oil per calendar day, which puts it in the top 15 refineries in the US by capacity.

 

[Nyogtha]

I've only flown in & out of MSP once, my wife has been there at the other refinery, the one in St. Paul Park, many times. In fact she's there this week, returning tomorrow. I understand there's FCCU work I did in Canton, OH that was later cloned at St. Paul Park, a sister unit FCCU.