Early January: Downstream news from North America

British Colombia

On Sunday 6^th January two thieves attempted to break in to the Esso owned Port Moody refinery. The break in was not successful as the two suspects were suffering from injuries after crashing a stolen vehicle on the refinery’s property.

California

Chevron Corp. has announced that repairs at the Richmond refinery will be completed this month. Repairs began after a fire in the facility’s crude unit on 6^th August 2012. Since the fire, production at the facility has been reduced to 50%.

Hawaii

It has been announced that Tesoro Corp will convert the Kapoeli refinery in to an import, storage and distribution terminal. The 93 500 bpd facility is the seventh refinery in the Western hemisphere to be converted in the last 4 years. The decision was made after unsuccessful attempts to sell the facility throughout 2012.

Nova Scotia

200 workers at the Dartmouth refinery are under threat of losing their jobs as very little interest has been shown in the Imperial Oil facility since it was put up for sale in May of 2012. It is most likely that the facility will be turned in to a tank farm which will only require 25 workers at any one time. The refinery has a processing capacity of 88 000 bpd.

Texas

The NuStar Energy has sold its San Antonio refinery to Calumet Speciality Products Partners LP. The 14 500 bpd facility has been bought for US$ 115 million but NuStar will continue operational and administrative support over the next few months to ensure a smooth transition.

Adapted from various sources by Claira Lloyd. 

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/10012013/january_2013_north_america_news/