The Americas: End of January update

Alabama

The US Department of Agriculture has agreed to support the construction of a cellulosic biofuel facility in Greene County. The US Department of Agriculture’s 9003 Biorefinery Loan Guarantee Program will provide the financing and will be the biggest loan ever granted to a bio facility. The facility is expected to have a processing capacity of 55 million gal./y of cellulosic ethanol.

Bahamas

Buckeye Partners has purchased an 80% stake in FR Borco Coop Holdings for US$ 1.36 billion. FR Borco Coop Holdings are the indirect owners of Bahamas Oil Refining Company International. Previous owners, FRC FOUNDERS CORP, are holding the remaining 20%.

Louisiana

A FCC unit at Citgo Petroleum Corp’s Lake Charles facility has been shutdown for planned maintenance. The unit at the 429 500 bpd facility is expected to be offline for six weeks. On 22^nd January, Citgo reported flaring at its Sulphur refinery. A filing was made with the US National Response Centre.

Mississippi

ExxonMobil Corp reported a spill of lubricating oil into the Mississippi River on Friday 21^st January. The spill originated in the joint venture Chalmette refinery. The volume of the spill is unknown and was caused by a leak in one of the refinery’s heat exchangers.

North Dakota

On Wednesday 19^th January, a fire broke out at Tesoro Corp’s Mandan refinery in a hydrofluoric acid alkylation unit. Throughput at the 58 000 bpd facility was affected.

Texas

From 19^th – 20^th January, work was carried out on the sulfur recovery unit at the Corpus Christi refinery. Flint Hills Resources LLC cleared dust from the unit to control pollution.

Washington

Crude and coker units will be shut at the Cherry Point refinery for maintenance. BP Plc made a filing with the Northwest Clean Air Agency, as the units will be taken offline in spring this year.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/25012011/the_americas_end_of_january_downstream_update/