USA and Canada downstream news: 20th March 2014

California

The city of Richmond has released a draft environmental impact report (EIR) for Chevron’s US$ 1 million modernization project at its Richmond refinery.

Prepared by a team of consultants hired by the city of Richmond, the EIR outlines that the project, which will replace some of the refinery’s oldest processing equipment with safer modern technology meeting some of the toughest air quality standards in the US, will not change the basic operation or capacity of the refinery.

Delaware

A small electrical fire and outage affected PBF Energy’s refinery operation near Delaware City last week, leading refinery gases to be diverted to the plant’s open air incinerators.

A refinery spokesperson indicated that the gases were flared following established safety procedures.

Minnesota

The Flint Hills Resources Rosemount oil refinery is to receive US$ 300 million in upgrades, on top of a US$ 400 million project the is already underway.

The new upgrades will add 1500 workers through 2016 and 20 permanent positions at the plant, which currently has 1000 full time employees.

Texas

An industrial accident at the Phillips 66 Borger refinery sent several people to hospital on Tuesday.

At least one employee was still receiving treatment last night, for injuries not considered life threatening. Another employee and a contract worker have been treated and released.

A Phillips 66 spokesperson has indicated that an investigation is being carried out in regards to the cause of the incident. There was no fire, therefore injuries are though to have been inflicted by chemical exposure.

Canada

Environmentalists claim that the proposed Energy east pipeline won’t be the boon to Eastern Canadian refiners that supporters claim, due to the fact that the majority of oil will be bound for export markets.

The US$ 12 billion project is likely to use the majority of its 1.1 million bpd capacity to send unrefined oilsands crude to markets in India, Europe and possibly the US, according to a recent report by the Council of Canadians, Ecology Action Centre, Environmental Defence and Equiterre.

Edited from various sources by Emma McAleavey.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/20032014/downstream_news_292/