Late March US downstream update
California
BP’s refinery in Carson warned of planned flaring beginning on 27 March, according to a notice filed with California pollution regulators. The flaring could last through April 15 as the refinery restarts a hydrotreater and a hydrocracking unit undergoes maintenance.
Indiana
BP will soon begin planned turnaround maintenance at its oil refinery in Whiting. Work at the plant's No. 4 Reformer and at an alkylation unit will start at the end of the month and last for approximately 60 days. Restart of the units is expected at the end of May.
Maintenance scheduled for November at BP’s Pipestill 12 in Whiting has been delayed by three months. The delay will not impact the modernisation project underway since May 2008 at the 405 000 bpd refinery. The reconfiguration of the plant's largest crude distillation unit, Pipestill 12 is expected to be completed by mid 2012.
Montana
Organisations, including the National Wildlife Federation, are seeking a court injunction to prevent an oil company from moving oversized loads of refinery equipment across the state. The state department released an environmental assessment in February that found no significant negative impacts on Montana's roads and environment in allowing Imperial Oil, an ExxonMobil Corp subsidiary, to ship dozens of massive loads of oil equipment across the state to Alberta, Canada. Upon arrival, the modules would be assembled into a factory at an US$ 8 billion complex at the Kearl oil sands.
Texas
Valero Energy Corp has reported a flaring on March 26 at its 287 000 bpd refinery at Port Arthur. The refinery is returning units to planned operating rates following a two month overhaul.
Wyoming
A small fire has forced evacuations at the Sinclair Wyoming Refining Company’s facility in Rawlins. The fire reportedly started when a vent pipe on an asphalt talk caught fire. No one was injured during the incident on March 25.
Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/28032011/late_march_us_downstream_update/
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