North America downstream news update: Mid October

California

Uncheck corrosion has been named as a suspected source of the fire at Chevron Corp’s Richmond refinery in August. This corrosion has also been linked to the October 2011 fire at the facility.

Louisiana

The crude unit at Valero Energy Cortp’s Meraux refinery has been restarted. The unit has been offline since a fire at the facility on 22^nd July. The entire facility was initially taken offline after the fire but slowly brought parts of the plant back online on 6^th August. Since then the facility has been running at reduced rates.

North Dakota

Three Affiliated Tribes have been awarded control of the land required for the construction of a new oil refinery. Construction of the US$ 400 million refinery is expected to start in the spring of 2013 and once completed will have a processing capacity of 20 000 bpd.

Texas

Flint Hills Resources reported last Friday that a gasoline making FCC unit was shut due to an equipment malfunction. A filing was made with the Texas pollution regulators.

On Saturday Valero Energy Corp began shutting units at its McKee refinery for planned maintenance. A filing was made with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality as a reformer and sulfur recovery unit is also scheduled to be taken offline.

Wyoming

The EPA has fined Sinclair Wyoming Refinery Company US$ 378 000 on top of the US$ 205 000 the facility was made to pay to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for safety violations that resulted in injury. These noncompliance charges have been enforced in the last month and add up to over half a million dollars. 

Edited from press releases by Claira Lloyd.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/15102012/north_america_downstream_october_news/