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Gulf Coast refiners making manoeuvres amid COVID-19 outbreaks
US GULF COAST
REFINERS on the US Gulf Coast are trying to maintain operations and make various moves while battling coronavirus (COVID-19) out- breaks and delays related to the pandemic. Despite the challenges, however, re ning and petrochemical facilities on the Gulf Coast are helping drive a nascent recovery in US industrial gas demand.
Among the facilities a ected by COVID-19 is Chevron’s Pasadena re nery in Texas, which was fully restarted on July 14 a er completing a multi-unit overhaul. Sources familiar with oper- ations at the 112,229 barrel per day (bpd) facility were cited by Reuters as saying the overhaul had been extended because of the pandemic, having initially been scheduled to last until mid-June.
e sources said the entire re nery had been shut from mid-April until last week, with the final units being returned to production this week.
Meanwhile, a major turnaround at Marathon Petroleum’s 585,000 bpd Texas City refinery, where over 100 cases of COVID-19 had been con rmed as of July 9, is still on schedule to be completed later this month according to sources cited by Bloomberg.
“We have procedures and protocols in place at all our re neries for keeping the workplace safe, which includes measures to identify, isolate, andtracecasestostemthespreadofthevirus,”a Marathon spokeswoman, Sid Barth, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying.
More than 500 contractors were brought in to help carry out the Texas City refinery turnaround.
COVID-19 cases have been spiking in Texas, and at least four other re neries in the state had reported workers testing positive for the virus as of July 9.
A Total spokeswoman, Marie Maitre, told Bloomberg that the French company had con- rmed “a number of positive Covid-19 cases” at some of its US sites including its re nery in Port Arthur, Texas. Workers there are tested on entering the site, wear face coverings and work staggered shi s.
Phillips 66 also con rmed it had COVID- 19 cases at its 265,000 bpd Sweeny re nery but declined to share further details on privacy con- cerns. However, the company said in a statement
that monitoring, isolation or quarantine was tak- ing place as necessary.
Meanwhile in Houston, the epicentre of Texas’ current COVID-19 outbreak, about 50 employees and contractors at LyondellBasell Industries’ 263,776 bpd re nery had tested pos- itive as of late June, while 17 others had been placed in quarantine. e company did not pro- vide further details to Bloomberg, but said that none of the cases had been work-related.
RoyalDutch Shell’s Deer Park re nery on the Houston Ship Channel had at least nine workers test positive for COVID-19 last week to make a total of 50 since the start of the outbreak. e number of workers at the plant remains at about 34% of its pre-pandemic level of 3,500, and the facility is operating at around 75% of its 318,000 bpd capacity according to sources cited by Reu- ters. is was attributed to lower demand as a result of the pandemic.
A Shell spokesman, Curtis Smith, also told Reuters that Shell was planning to idle a sul- phur recovery unit (SRU) at the Deer Park facility, which the super-major co-owns with Mexico’s Pemex on a 50:50 basis, in 2021. e SRU is one of six such units at Deer Park, and the announcement comes a er a review of the re nery’s operations.
“We continually assess all aspects of our business to ensure we remain competitive in an ever-tightening market,” Smith said. “As part of that process, we have made the decision to shut down one of Deer Park’s sulphur recovery units next year.”
Despite the challenges involved in operat- ing currently, especially where large numbers of workers are involved in operations, there are early indications that industrial gas demand from refineries and petrochemical facilities on the Gulf Coast and in the surrounding area is starting to recover. This comes after steep declines in demand in June, and the trend remains vulnerable to any new lockdowns that could dampen demand again.™
Shell is planning to idle a sulphur recovery unit (SRU) at the Deer Park facility in 2021.
More than 500 contractors were brought in to help carry out the Texas City re nery turnaround.
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