MOSCOW (MRC) -- Marathon Petroleum Corp’s Galveston Bay Refinery and three Houston-area refineries continue operating amid a resurgence in COVID-19 cases, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to sources familiar with operations at the plants.
As many as 100 people have come down with COVID-19 at Marathon’s Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas, since the disease’s US outbreak in late January, sources familiar with plant operations said on Thursday.
Most of those infected were contractors working within the plant, with some employees also catching the disease, the sources said. The refinery has had as many 5,000 people on site while performing a multi-unit overhaul that began in late May.
In addition to requiring social distancing in the workplace and mandating wearing masks while working within 6 feet (1.8 m) of another person, refiners require temperature checks before entering their plants, among other precautions.
Houston has emerged as a hotspot for COVID-19’s return in the past month. Harris and Galveston counties have recorded 45,000 cases out of 230,000 across the state.
]A total of 53 people, including 14 employees, have been confirmed as having COVID-19 at Lyondell Basell’s Houston refinery, according to sources familiar with that plant’s operations. The other 39 cases are contractors.
At Lyondell, another 27 employees are quarantined for the disease.
Lyondell spokeswoman Chevalier Gray declined to disclose the number of those infected.
"None of the cases resulted from an event or exposure of any employee to COVID-19 in the workplace," Gray said.
At Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Deer Park, Texas, refinery, nine COVID-19 cases were confirmed this week bringing the total for the year to 50, said company spokesman Curtis Smith.
Three employees and two contractors have caught the disease since January at Chevron’s Corp’s Pasadena, Texas, refinery, said sources familiar with operations at the plant.
As MRC reported earlier, US refiner Marathon Petroleum Corp is delaying all maintenance projects at its 102,000 barrel-per-day St. Paul Park, Minnesota, refinery for 2020 amid concerns related to the spread of the novel coronavirus. Several refiners have delayed planned maintenance at their plants this year due to concerns around the spread of the coronavirus among workers, or as part of capital and operational expense cuts.
Besides, Marathon Petroleum Corp idled its 166,000 barrel-per-day (bpd)refinery in Martinez, California beginning April 27 in response to the coronavirus pandemic’s hit to demand for refined products.
Meanwhile, Marathon Petroleum Corp plans to operate the gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracker (FCC) at its 585,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas. The 140,000 bpd FCC restarted on Sunday, 12 April, after repairs following a March 23 brief power outage that shut the unit.
Propylene is the main feedstock for the production of polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market was 457,930 tonnes in January-May 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Deliveris of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.
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