End of the week update from the Americas

Alaska

While the Trans-Alaska pipeline remains shut, Tesoro Corp. has announced that the Alaska refinery can continue to run until 18^th January. The Kenai facility has a processing capacity of 72 000 bpd.

Aruba

The Valero Energy Corp. owned Aruba refinery will be running at planned rates by mid January. The facility was taken offline in July 2009 due to low demand for US motor fuels and falling refining margins.

Canada

The Scotford refinery, Alberta will be undergoing minor maintenance. Royal Dutch Shell Plc made the announcement on 11^th January as it registered potential intermittent flaring for eight hours from 8:15 am on the 11^th.

Illinois

After reporting a vapour emissions release, ConocoPhillips have restarted the compressor and adjusted unit operations at the Wood River refinery. The incident happened on 10^th January but was successfully resolved on 11^th. ConocoPhillips have also announced plans to carryout maintenance at the facility in March of this year. The No. 3 cat reformer and hydrodesulfurisation units 1 and 2 will be taken offline.

Louisiana

Marathon Oil Corp’s Garyville refinery is now the third largest facility in the US. The 464 000 bpd plant is behind ExxonMobil’s 560 640 bpd Baytown, Texas refinery and their 504 500 bpd Baton Rouge, Louisiana refinery.

Mexico

The Minatitlan refinery is now back online after a power outage. The Pemex run facility experienced the problem at the Veracruz facility earlier this week. The facility has a capacity of 185 000 bpd.

Oklahoma

On 13^th January, Holly Corp. announced that it was ready to restart units at its Tulsa refinery. Process units were idled earlier that day due to a malfunction with the plant’s boiler, which resulted in a loss of steam.

Pennsylvania

Maintenance will be carried out at the Warren refinery during March. United Refining Co. expects the turnaround to take three weeks.

Texas

The Delek US Holidings Tyler refinery has once again reported a flaring incident. This happened on 12^th January due to the malfunction of a level control device. Flaring, due to the same malfunction also happened on Monday 10^th.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/14012011/end_of_the_week_update_from_the_americas/