US: Mid February update

Flint Hills Resources

Flint Hills Resources Pine Bend refinery has been awarded a 2011 Business of the Year Award. The River Heights Chamber of Commerce honoured Flint Hills with the award. Pine Bend is also known as one of the safest and cleanest refineries in the US.

Newark

Two men were arrested for burglary and criminal mischief at the ConocoPhillips owned refinery on 12^th February. It is believed that the men had gained illegal access to the facility and were on the hunt for scrap metal.

Valero

Production at the Port Arthur refinery, Texas was not affected by a problem with a regenerative thermal oxidiser at the plant’s wastewater treatment facility. The turnaround currently being carried out at the facility was not affected either.

Valero Energy Corp. aided by KBR has started up advanced reformate splitters at two of its refineries. The mobile source air toxic II benzene concentration units were designed and optimised by KBR but developed by Valero.

Virgin Islands

Concerns have been raised regarding the emissions levels from the Hovensa refinery. The Environmental Protection Agency will be monitoring air pollution rates around the facility and will compile a report for release in May.

Western Refining

On February 2^nd, Western Refining Inc. shutdown operations at its El Paso refinery due to severely cold weather. The company are now in the process of restarting some units at the 122 000 bpd plant and hope it will return to full processing capacity by the end of the week.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/16022011/us_mid_february_update/