MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil’s US oil refineries pump out far more lung-damaging soot than similarly-sized facilities operated by rivals, according to regulatory documents and a Reuters analysis of pollution test results.
The Texas-based firm’s three largest refineries - two in Texas and one in Louisiana - are the nation’s top three emitters of small particulate matter, according to the analysis of the latest tests submitted to regulators by the nation’s 10 largest refineries.
The three Exxon refineries together averaged emissions of 80 pounds per hour, eight times the average rate of the seven other refineries on the top-ten list, some of which are larger than Exxon's plants, the analysis shows. The top polluter, Exxon's Baton Rouge refinery, averaged 138 pounds per hour.
The performance reflects the firm’s inadequate spending to cut emissions, said Wilma Subra, a Louisiana-based scientist who formerly served on the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
The company has taken heat for years for its environmental performance. Last week, Exxon lost at least two seats on its board of directors to an activist hedge fund seeking to force the firm to reckon with climate change.
Exxon said in a statement that it tries to comply with environmental laws and has invested billions of dollars to reduce emissions over the last two decades.
The EPA requires plants to restrict small particulate matter emissions to 1 pound or less for every 1,000 pounds of coke burned in a refinery’s catalytic cracking units. But Exxon’s Baton Rouge plant is the only major US refinery that doesn’t have to meet that standard because of an EPA rule that exempts “cat crackers” that were built before 1976 and haven’t been modified since.
Refineries also have to meet state standards for particulate-matter pollution. But those limits can vary widely among states - and among different facilities within states - based on the strictness of state regulators and whether a refinery has agreed to tighter limits to settle lawsuits. And Louisiana regulators allow much higher pollution levels at Exxon’s Baton Rouge plant than at other state refineries.
Exxon’s two big oil refineries in Texas - in Beaumont and Baytown - are also among the top three polluters identified by Reuters. But Exxon’s 517,000-barrel-per-day Baton Rouge plant produces far more soot.
Because the Baton Rouge refinery’s two catalytic crackers were built during World War Two - among the first such units in the country - they are exempt from federal EPA standards.
Big refineries run by Exxon’s rivals are doing much better at controlling soot. Ironically, many of them are using technology invented and licensed by Exxon, according to disclosures by Exxon and environmental regulators.
Specialists in industrial pollution say the differences in performance can be attributed to any of a number of factors: rivals’ equipment could be newer; maintenance schedules may be more frequent; and refining processes before wet gas scrubbing may also be optimized to reduce soot. All of that takes money. In many cases, it also takes lawsuits.
Companies such as BP plc, Marathon Petroleum, Phillips 66 and Valero Energy Corp have made agreements with the EPA in recent years to slash emissions below federal standards to help settle pollution-related litigation, regulatory disclosures show.
As MRC informed earlier, in April, 2021, ExxonMobil, one of the world's petrochemical majors, and Global Clean Energy expanded their five-year agreement to increase ExxonMobil’s purchase of renewable diesel up to 5 million barrels per year.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled576,270 tonnes in the first three month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 410,890 tonnes in January-March 2021, up by 56% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world"s oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC