MOSCOW (MRC) -- Two workers at Valero's Port Arthur refinery have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to Houston Chronicle.
Valero, the second largest refinery company in the United States, cut nonessential work and related contractors this week after initiating temperature checks last week -- much later than than its peers in the industry, Reuters reported Tuesday.
As part of the company's privacy policies, Valero will not publicize COVID-19 cases. But company spokeswoman Lillian Riojas said Valero has developed a pandemic response plans in the case an employee or contractor tests positive.
"The health and safety of our workers and communities is critically important to us," Riojas said.
Valero's response measures include compliance and cooperation with the Center for Disease Control and local health authorities as well as deep cleaning or sterilization of affected areas, communicating with employees in "close contact" with the affected workers. The company also has developed quarantine and communications protocols, Riojas said.
Although Valero isn't confirming or publicizing cases, British oil major BP has taken a different approach. The company confirmed that several workers aboard one of its offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico tested positive for the disease.
Shortly after the incident, BP enacted new protocols that include a new "team-based" shift model where contact between teams is restricted.
As MRC reported before, in late March 2020, an employee at Valero Energy Corp’s Meraux, Louisiana, refinery tested positive for the coronavirus.
We also remind that Valero Energy Corp restarted the small CDU at its Port Arthur refinery after repairing a valve on 25 September 2019. And in late October 2019, Valero Energy Corp shut the small crude distillation unit (CDU) at its Port Arthur refinery. The 75,000-bpd AVU 147 CDU was shut to repair a heat exchanger.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (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.
MRC