You are here
Texas Refiners Spared by Harvey Sweat Storm's Second Round
According to Bloomberg report that refiners in South Texas are starting to recover from Harvey, forecasters have the storm gearing up for a second landfall in an area further east that includes the nation's largest refinery. As the storm moves toward the Texas-Louisiana border from its present location over the Gulf of Mexico, Motiva Enterprises LLC's Port Arthur facility, the largest in the U.S., remains open but is running at 60% capacity with supply issues. Valero Corp.'s Port Arthur operation has already closed two units because of flooding, Total SA's plant there is to cut its output to a minimum and Exxon Mobil Corp.'s nearby Beaumont refinery is to be shutting down because of flooding. The area near the Louisiana line has 1.65 million barrels a day of refining capacity. While flooding is the primary problem for refineries in Harvey's aftermath, it's not the only one. Marathon Petroleum Corp.'s Galveston Bay refinery, for instance, is to be shutting because pipeline disruptions have led to the plant running out of crude. The Port of Houston has no timeline for reopening, while Corpus Christi's port is expected to resume normal operations by Sept. 4. Colonial Pipeline, the main conduit for gasoline and diesel from the Gulf Coast to the eastern U.S., is already not receiving supply from the Houston area. The loss of refineries around Port Arthur, Texas, would leave only Louisiana refineries supplying fuel to New York and other demand centers.