Refinery Maintenance Report

Transcription

1 Special Edition: Hurricane Harvey Corpus Christi Refineries Carry Out Controlled Shutdowns August 25, 2017 Three oil refineries and two condensate splitters in Corpus Christi, Texas have shut down their operations ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Harvey, which is forecast to be the first major hurricane to hit the U.S. in almost twelve years. Hurricane Harvey has recently achieved Category 3 status and is expected to make landfall Friday night near Corpus Christi. The storm threatens to be a significant flooding event because it is forecast to stall over the central Texas coastline and a bit inland for several days, dumping at least one to two feet of rain and more in isolated cases. Affected PADD Capacity Coker Unit BBLS Down Crude Unit BBLS Down FCC Unit BBLS Down Hydrocracker Unit BLS Down Reformer Unit BBLS Down Aug 30-Aug 4-Sep 9-Sep 14-Sep 24-Sep 4-Oct 24-Oct Affected Refineries, Shut Capacity (barrels per stream day) All refinery and processing unit capacity figures are given in barrels per stream day (as of Jan. 1, 2017) per the EIA Refinery Capacity Report from June Material is from the best possible sources, but because of the reticence of many companies to confirm unit outages, it cannot be guaranteed.

2 Valero Energy, Flint Hills Resources and CITGO Petroleum have suspended operations at their refineries in Corpus Christi, and Magellan and Buckeye have done the same with their condensate splitters in the region. Including the splitters (each with crude processing capacity of 50,000 b/d, not included in the figures on page 1), the total amount of crude oil processing capacity in the Corpus Christi refining region currently offline is 868,000 barrels per stream day, or 4.2% of total U.S. capacity. A drift east-northeast by Harvey could mean a second landfall next week, as a tropical storm, near Galveston, Texas, potentially interrupting much more processing capacity in the Texas City-Houston-Baytown refining center. The region is home to 11 refineries capable of processing up to 2,724,000 b/d, or 14% of total U.S. capacity. The most serious threats from Harvey are wind damage impacting power supplies and flooding from heavy rainfall and storm surge which can do significant harm to refinery equipment from process units to control rooms and everything in between. Downtime guidance from Houston-based oil analyst Andy Lipow, President of Lipow Oil Associates, takes storm strength into account, and Harvey s rapid intensification on Thursday roughly tripled estimates. A hit from a Category 1 storm takes about one week to restore refinery operations to normal, according to Lipow, but a Category 3 landfall holds the promise of two to three weeks of work for refineries to get back on their feet. Category 3 hurricanes (with wind speeds ranging from 111 to 130 miles) bring with them evacuations, widespread power outages, wind damage, flooding and difficulty getting workers back to refineries, said Lipow, president of Lipow Oil & Associates, all of which take a long time to recover from. Due to the changeable nature of Harvey s progress and the conditions the hurricane will bring, OPIS has based its Corpus Christi refinery outage duration estimates on Lipow s figures in the graph below. OPIS will revise those estimates as needed in the usual course of reporting on Hurricane Harvey refinery closures, damage and restart operations. LyondellBasell Implementing Hurricane Preparedness Plans LyondellBasell is implementing hurricane preparedness plans at several of its U.S. Gulf Coast facilities, the company told IHS Markit on Friday. IHS Markit is the parent company of OPIS. LyondellBasell is implementing our very detailed hurricane preparedness plans. While these plans vary from site-to-site, they are designed to mitigate the impacts of storms like Hurricane Harvey, including flooding, LyondellBasell spokesperson Chevalier Gray told IHS Markit. Gray said that, out of an abundance of caution, the company is conducting controlled shutdowns at its sites in Matagorda, Victoria, Chocolate Bayou and Corpus Christi (all in Texas). We are preparing for heavy rainfall and have proactively taken steps to address potential flooding at several other sites, Gray said. Those sites include the Houston refinery and the La Porte, Bayport and Channelview complexes in Texas, as well as the Lake Charles polyolefins plant in Louisiana. - OPIS Staff Reports

3 *updated PADD1 / East Coast Phillips 66 Work on the company s FCC modernization project at the 251,000-b/d Bayway refinery in Linden, N.J., is seen for February and March 2018, according to IHS Markit. On Aug. 1, Phillips 66 executives reiterated their expectation that modernization of the sole 145,000-b/d FCC (to increase clean product yield by some 4,000 b/d) would be completed in the first half of Previous reports of planned work at Bayway have included some portion of Q as well as Q PADD2 / Midwest Andeavor (formerly Tesoro) The company s 20,000-b/d diesel refinery in Dickinson, N.D., has a maintenance turnaround scheduled for September, according to a local media report. During the work, part of the plant is to be converted to produce renewable diesel fuel from vegetable oils, a spokesman for the refinery said in the report. Initial renewable output is targeted at 5% by end If successful, Andeavor would consider converting all of the refinery s output to renewable diesel, he said. Calumet The company said on Aug. 14 it will sell its 50,000-b/d refinery in Superior, Wis. to Husky Energy. Husky has committed to key capital projects at the plant, including the crude flexibility project. As previously reported, part of a major turnaround took place in Q2 and plans had been for a second phase (including completion of the flexibility project) to take place in the first half of CVR Refining The company reported flaring on Aug. 8 at its 75,000-b/d Wynnewood, Okla., refinery to state regulators which appeared to involve a shutdown of at least two days for the 18,200-b/d hydrocracker. There were further emissions from the Aug. 10 restart and from another unit event on Aug. 13. The duration of the outage and current status of the hydrocracker weren t clear from the information in the Oklahoma DEQ emissions summary for Aug Meanwhile, six weeks of planned maintenance at the refinery is set to begin in the latter half of September. Both crude units are to be shut for the work. HollyFrontier A leak has forced the closure of the FCC at the company s 141,000-b/d refinery in El Dorado, Kan., market sources told OPIS on July 19. While repairs are made to the 44,000-b/d FCC, the alkylation unit will also be down, sources said. Duration of the downtime wasn t known and HollyFrontier wasn t immediately available for comment. HollyFrontier The company indicated a slightly earlier turnaround for its 165,500-b/d Tulsa, Okla., refinery in an August conference call, mentioning October timing for upcoming work at one of its refineries. November was previously pegged for work at the West Plant. Among the processing units at Tulsa West are a 90,000-b/d crude unit and lubricant units. Husky The Canadian company s 170,000-b/d refinery in Lima, Ohio, is slated to undergo a five-week maintenance turnaround in Q4 2017, Husky said on Dec. 13. In Q4 2016, the plant s crude flexibility project increased heavy crude processing capacity by some 2,000 b/d to 10,000 b/d. When the project is completed in 2018, heavy crude capacity is expected to have risen to 40,000 b/d. In Spring 2016 the Lima refinery saw an eight-week turnaround, returning to full operations in April. Phillips 66 A diesel recovery project (to improve yields) at the company s 218,747-b/d refinery in Ponca

4 City, Okla., is expected to be completed during Q3 2017, senior management said in a conference call on Aug. 1. As previously reported, trade reports cited by Tudor Pickering Holt show FCC maintenance is planned for late September into October. Duration of the work on the 74,613-b/d FCC is about two weeks. Phillips 66 As of July 12, the larger of two cokers (63,000 b/d) at the company s 330,000-b/d Wood River refinery in Illinois was reportedly restarting after about one week of unplanned repairs. Meanwhile, the refinery s ongoing FCC modernization project may be concluding with maintenance planned for autumn Tudor Pickering Holt, citing trade reports, shows the Wood River plant undergoing an FCC turnaround of some 40 days in late Q3 and early Q4. Like the FCC modernization/yield increasing project at the Phillips 66 Bayway refinery in New Jersey, the Wood River project is expected to be complete in the first half of Wood River FCC capacity totals 101,000 b/d, according to the EIA. PADD3 / Gulf Coast Alon Following Q1 throughput (more than 77,000 b/d) at its Krotz Springs, La., refinery, Alon expects Q2 runs at the plant to average 75,000 b/d, executives said May 8. Meanwhile, a reformer regeneration and catalyst replacement in the isomerization unit at Krotz Springs is to take place in Q Andeavor (formerly Tesoro) In May 2017, before Andeavor s acquisition of Western Refining closed, Western said its 134,000-b/d refinery in El Paso, Texas, would perform a turnaround in October Based on previous comments, a crude unit there is to be expanded (by 3,500 b/d), along with related downstream units such as an alkylation unit (by 1,000 b/d), idling about half of the refinery during the maintenance. The expansion was seen boosting total El Paso capacity to about 140,000 b/d and increasing the plant s ability to make Phoenix-grade AZRBOB gasoline by 2,500 b/d. *CITGO Corpus Christi As of Aug. 25, the company was shutting down its 163,500-b/d refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, on a precautionary basis due to Hurricane Harvey, IHS Markit told OPIS, citing a person familiar with operations at the plant. Reports to state regulators from late on Aug. 24 made available on Aug. 25 confirmed the action. On Aug. 24, CITGO shut the larger of two FCCs at the refinery due to a catalyst leak. *Deer Park Aug. 24 saw the 340,000-b/d Houston-area refinery attempting to restart the larger of its two crude units (260,000 b/d) following downtime of one week to repair damage from an Aug. 17 fire in the unit, trading sources told OPIS. Estimates of the unit s downtime ranging from one to two weeks have been complicated by forecasts for Harvey to make second landfall as a tropical storm near Galveston Bay after first landfall as a Category 3 hurricane near Corpus Christi. ExxonMobil As of Aug. 18, the post-turnaround resumption of operations at a hydrocracker at the 584,000-b/d Baytown, Texas, refinery was at least a few days away. The 29,900-b/d unit was reportedly shut just a day after a restart earlier in the week, trading sources told OPIS. The planned maintenance began in mid-june. *Flint Hills The company began shutting down its 304,000-b/d refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, on a precautionary basis on Aug. 24 ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Harvey, according to a filing with state environmental regulators. Crude processing capacity at the West Plant is 230,000 b/d, while the East Plant can process up to 74,000 b/d of crude. Marathon Petroleum As of Aug. 14, the FCC and alkylation unit at the company s 89,500-b/d Texas

5 City refinery had returned to operations, market sources told OPIS. Maintenance on the 58,500-b/d FCC and the alkylation unit had lasted two to three weeks, and followed several days of downtime for the crude unit that began around July 18. July had seen maintenance on the plant s FCC regenerator PBF Energy As of Aug. 3, work on an idled reformer, naphtha hydrotreater and light-ends unit at the company s 197,000-b/d refinery in Chalmette, La., was mechanically complete, the company said. Startup of the units was seen concluding by mid-august, allowing for more production of high-octane, ultralow-sulfur reformate and chemicals from unfinished naphtha. Meanwhile, the sour crude oil tank (450,000 bbl working capacity) under construction is seen going into service in late October. The tank is key to decongesting Chalmette s dock and allowing the refinery to increase its exports of refined products from 15,000 b/d currently to a targeted 30,000 b/d. Phillips 66 The company has updated the status of an FCC at its 154,000-b/d refinery in Borger, Texas, which was shut on Aug. 7 due to an emissions event. In a second report to state environmental regulators, Phillips 66 now says the Unit 40 FCC was shut for scheduled repairs. The end date for the maintenance event is listed as Aug. 28. Total FCC capacity at the plant (a joint venture with Cenovus) is 58,000 b/d. Shell As of Aug. 18, one of two crude units at the company s 255,000-b/d refinery in Convent, La., was back to normal operations following restart earlier in the week, market sources told OPIS. The unit (about 100,000 b/d capacity) had reportedly been under repair because of a leak discovered about one week earlier. Shell As of Aug. 18, a processing unit was restarting at Shell s 250,000-b/d refinery in Norco, La., after an outage of about two weeks, a trading source told OPIS. Shell didn t identify the unit but Reuters reported it was a 40,000-b/d reformer. The unit was shut as the result of a fire on Aug. 5. Total As of the second week of August, reports of an operational issue with an FCC at the company s 245,000-b/d Port Arthur, Texas, refinery were circulating in the spot market. Total reported Aug. 15 emissions from the 80,000-b/d FCC and a sulfur recovery unit during planned maintenance to state regulators, and noted that a unit (not identified) was returned to normal operations. Meanwhile, Tudor Pickering Holt, citing published trade reports, notes some 62-day portion of the Q3-Q4 period is to see a turnaround at the refinery involving a crude unit, FCC and alkylation unit. *Valero On Aug. 24, the company began shutting down its 300,000-b/d refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, on a precautionary basis ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Harvey. Valero The outage of the company s entire 128,000-b/d Meraux, La., refinery was apparently one that lasted only a few days, market sources told OPIS on Aug. 14, as the plant has stopped selling low-sulfur VGO. A power outage early on Aug. 9 reportedly spurred the downtime. Valero did not respond to requests for comment. Valero July 22 saw an FCC power train trip at the company s 172,000-b/d McKee refinery in Sunray, Texas, which resulted in the shutdown of the 54,500- b/d unit. While the report to state regulators referred to safe shutdown/startup procedures undertaken to minimize emissions, it wasn t clear how long it would take to return the unit to normal operations. As previously reported, the FCC experienced a power train trip and shutdown on June 15. *Valero On Aug. 24, the company began shutting down its 91,000-b/d refinery in Three Rivers, Texas, on a precautionary basis ahead of the arrival of

6 Hurricane Harvey. Three Rivers is located 73 miles northwest of Corpus Christi, the expected approximate location of Harvey s initial landfall on Aug. 25 or early Aug. 26. PADD4 / Rockies Calumet PADD4 refinery utilization averaging a high 94.6% of capacity in July and half of August suggests that the 45-day Q3 turnaround at the company s 25,000-b/d refinery in Great Falls, Mont., may take place in the second half of the quarter. Trade reports cited by Tudor Pickering Holt say the units to see work in Q3 are the crude unit, FCC and reformer. Calumet has said only that the work would take place in the second half of Andeavor (formerly Tesoro) The company is planning early autumn maintenance on the FCC at its 63,000-b/d refinery in Salt Lake City, Utah, investment bank Tudor Pickering Holt noted in an early July rundown of outages. No start or end dates were given but work on the 26,000-b/d FCC is seen taking some 22 days and taking in parts of Q3 and Q4. PADD5 / West Coast Andeavor (formerly Tesoro) July 18 saw the beginning of a unit restart at the company s 170,000-b/d Golden Eagle refinery in Martinez, Calif., according to a filing with local health officials. The unit was not identified. As previously reported, multiple reports pegged a second-half July restart for a reformer undergoing turnaround since June 12. The FCC and alkylation unit, also in maintenance, were expected to return to operation in mid-august. Chevron The company s 257,200-b/d Richmond refinery in the San Francisco Bay Area reported an unspecified unit upset and significant flaring on Aug. 9, which helped drive cash differentials for California CARBOB solidly higher. Chevron said the refinery continues to operate but did not elaborate on whether normal production was affected. Par Pacific The company is planning a refinery project to expand ULSD production at its 95,000-b/d refinery in Kapolei, Hawaii, it said in early August. Par s board of directors has approved a $27-million hydrotreater project, the completion of which is seen during Q Further details were not immediately available. The refinery has an 18,000-b/d hydrocracker. PBF Energy A hydrocracker operational issue at the company s 157,800-b/d refinery in Torrance, Calif., early on July 18 resulted in flaring, according to a regulatory filing with the city. Three charge pump failures in the unit were responsible, the report said. Hydrocracking capacity at the refinery is listed as 23,000 b/d by the EIA Refinery Capacity Report. Phillips 66 The company s 44,500-b/d Santa Maria refinery in Arroyo Grande, Calif., continues to operate at reduced rates because of the closure in May 2015 of the Plains All American pipeline after a rupture and spill. The company characterizes the closure s impact to Santa Maria crude supply as 20,000-25,000 b/d, but says that increased truck delivery of crude has mitigated the impact to some 10,000-12,500 b/d. Together, the Rodeo and Santa Maria refineries make up one system. Rodeo upgrades semi-refined products from Santa Maria into various finished petroleum products for California markets. Phillips 66 The company s 147,000-b/d Wilmington, Calif., refinery reported the breakdown of an processing unit (not identified) in the early hours of Aug. 10. The Los Angeles area plant continues to operate, according to regulatory filings. A company spokeswoman said there is no planned maintenance currently underway there. The Wilmington facility has FCC, alkylation, hydrocracking, coking and naphtha

7 reforming capacity, while the nearby Phillips 66 Carson facility processes crude oil into intermediate products which are sent to Wilmington for upgrading into finished fuels. Shell A process unit shutdown at the company s 158,000-b/d Martinez, Calif., refinery late on Aug. 16 triggered flaring which is expected to continue intermittently until the refinery returns to normal operations, according to Shell. Neither the company nor its incident report to state emergency officials identified the affected unit or gave any indication how long it would be down.

8 Mark your calendar for these upcoming OPIS events! Refinery Maintenance Report We ve got something for everyone, no matter where you fall on the fuel chain. Visit or call for complete information and to register. SEPT OPIS Winning Fuel Buying Strategies Renaissance Nashville Hotel Nashville, TN The fundamentals of purchasing physical fuel profitably SEPT Natural Gas Next: 2018 and Beyond Westin New York at Times Square New York, NY Expert natural gas market trend analysis OCT 2-4 OPIS 9th Annual RFS2, RINs & Biodiesel Forum InterContinental Hotel Magnificent Mile Chicago, IL Perspectives on the evolving renewable fuels standard OCT 12 55th Annual New York Harbor Supply & Distribution Club Gala New York Hilton Midtown New York, NY Networking and business development event for the petrochemical and petroleum distribution and supply chain OCT OPIS 4th Annual Europe LPG Summit Hilton Park Lane London, England Navigating the pitfalls and opportunities associated with the current LPG climate OCT OPIS Octane Value Forum JW Marriott Houston Houston, TX Examining the key questions facing refiners, marketers, automakers, regulators & petrochemical interests NOV 6-7 OPIS Mexico Fuel Week: Mexico-U.S Petroleum Summit Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotel Mexico City, Mexico Finding stability and profitability in Mexico s shifting fuels landscape NOV 8-9 OPIS Mexico Fuel Week: Fuel Importation & Marketing Strategies Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotel Mexico City, Mexico Successfully sourcing, purchasing and importing fuel from U.S. suppliers NOV Natural Gas Next: 2018 and Beyond Hyatt Regency Houston, TX Expert natural gas market trend analysis DEC 6-8 OPIS 6th Annual LCFS & Carbon Markets Workshop San Francisco, CA The fuel industry s foremost event on LCFS and carbon markets MAR 5-8 OPIS 8th Annual NGL Summit Hotel del Coronado San Diego, CA Where the industry meets to negotiate annual deals OPIS ON-DEMAND ELEARNING COURSES OPIS Basics of Fuel Buying A complete elearning course on how to purchase physical fuel. OPIS NGL Supply & Market Basics A comprehensive elearning course on the NGL/LPG industry. Refined Products LPG / NGLs Retail Conference Renewable Fuels Natural Gas Seminar Networking