MOSCOW (MRC) -- Motiva
Enterprises shut the gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracker (FCC) at
its 607,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas, refinery to repair a leak,
reported Reuters with reference
to sources familiar with plant operations.
The 81,000-bpd FCC was
shut on Monday night to begin repair of the leak, the sources said.
As
MRC informed
earlier, Motiva is evaluating opportunities to build a new polyethylene (PE)
line within its proposed steam cracker and aromatics project in Jefferson
County, Texas. The new PE capacity will be located at the company’s Port Arthur
Refinery Complex in Jefferson County, Texas. The planned capacity of the unit
was not specified, while the value of the project is reportedly estimated at
around USD3.1 billion.
Besides, in late 2019, Motiva Enterprises acquired 100% of
Flint Hills Resources chemical plant, adjacent to its Port Arthur, Texas, oil
refinery. The Flint Hills plant operates a 1.57 billion-pound-per-year ethylene
cracker, a unit producing nylon component cyclohexane, and a network of
pipelines and storage caverns. Saudi Aramco, in its IPO prospectus, said the
cash payment will be determined as per the project value at SAR 7.13 billion
(USD1.9 billion).
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE
and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast
report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 383,760 tonnes in
the first two month of 2020, up by 14% year on year. High density polyethylene
(HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased due to
the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP
shipments to the Russian market were 192,760 tonnes in
January-February 2020, down by 6% year on year. Homopolymer PP accounted
for the main decrease in imports.
Motiva Enterprises, LLC, is a
fully owned affiliate of Saudi Refining Inc. and headquartered in Houston,
Texas, United States with revenue of USD24 billion. Previously, it was a 50–50
joint venture between Shell Oil Company (the wholly owned American subsidiary of
Royal Dutch Shell) and Saudi Refining Inc. (controlled by Saudi
Aramco). |