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).
MRC