Exxon Working Toward Restarting Baytown Refinery, the Second-Largest in the U.S.
September 03 2017 - 10:25AM
Dow Jones News
By Dan Molinski
Exxon Mobil Corp. said it is working toward restarting its
Houston-area Baytown refinery -- the nation's second-largest oil
refinery -- after a shutdown due to Tropical Storm Harvey, but said
another of its coastal Texas refineries remains closed.
Exxon's two processing plants were among nearly a dozen
refineries forced to halt operations due to Harvey, which wreaked
havoc on three of the U.S.'s main refining hubs along the Texas
coastline -- Corpus Christi, Houston and the Port Arthur/Beaumont
region. The closures have taken around 20% of U.S. refining
capacity offline and have caused gasoline prices to soar, both at
the wholesale and retail levels, amid concerns many of the
refineries may be damaged and stay shut for weeks.
"Our initial assessment of Exxon Mobil's Baytown complex
revealed the need for only minor repairs," the company said in a
statement late Saturday. "We are making good progress on restart
activities."
It said the specific timing for returning to normal operations
at the 560,000-barrel-a-day Baytown plant will depend largely on
the availability and condition of transportation infrastructure.
"We are working with the Port of Houston to expedite vessels
through the Houston Ship Channel and we are coordinating with
railroads to help facilitate necessary repairs," it said.
As for Exxon's other Texas-coast refinery, its
362,000-barrel-a-day Beaumont plant east of Houston, it said "units
at the Beaumont refinery remain shut down," without providing
further details.
The announcements by Exxon comes as Phillips 66 said it is
hoping to re-start its 247,000-barrel-a-day Sweeny refinery,
located in Old Ocean near Houston. "We are currently assessing the
condition of our impacted facilities and making repairs and other
preparations to begin the process of resuming operations," it said
Saturday. Also, four of the main refineries in the Corpus Christi
region, plants owned by Valero Energy Corp, Venezuela's Citgo, and
Kansas-based Flint Hills Resources, have also announced restart
efforts.
The nation's largest refinery, the 603,000-barrel-a-day Saudi
Arabian Oil Co's Motiva Port Arthur facility, remains shut and the
company's most recent statement last week said it has no timeline
for a restart. But it noted "unprecedented flooding" in the city of
Port Arthur, where the refinery is located, 90 miles east of
Houston.
Write to Dan Molinski at Dan.Molinski@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 03, 2017 11:10 ET (15:10 GMT)
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