US Gulf Coast petchems impacted by arctic blast

HOUSTON (ICIS)–The US Gulf Coast petrochemical industry was somewhat affected after temperatures dropped well below freezing on Monday night, although avoiding catastrophic shutdowns as with Winter Storm Uri in February 2021.

Port Houston’s terminals closed on Tuesday morning as a precaution against icy roads leading to and from the port.

Bayport and Barbours Cut container terminals and the Turning Basin Terminal Truck Office were to resume normal operations at 13:00 Central time.

Formosa’s olefins operations were affected, according to filings with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TECQ), but market sources told ICIS the plants were not fully shut down.

Other ethylene issues included:

• INEOS Chocolate Bayou crackers reducing rates,
• Enterprise Products propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit shutting down,
• LyondellBasell experiencing a process upset at La Porte,
• Chevron Phillips Chemical (CP Chem) reducing rates, and
• NOVA Geismar shutting down ahead of the freeze, according to market sources.

Several ethylene oxide (EO) and derivative plants are down, including Indorama at Port Neches and Clear Lake and Dow, according to market sources. The companies were not immediately available for comment.

TotalEnergies’ Port Arthur refinery is examining units after a plantwide power outage.

Operations were back to normal at ExxonMobil Chemicals’ Baytown fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit and flexicoker (FXK) unit after a process upset.

There were some incidents reported to the Community Awareness Emergency Response (CAER) community hotline, although it is unclear if any were related to the winter weather:

• A process upset at INEOS Styrolution Pasadena led to intermittent use of the plant’s safety flare.
• The Valero Houston Refinery used its safety flare because of operational conditions.
• Invista Houston used its safety flare and steam venting systems.
• Shell Deer Park experienced flaring because of work activities at the plant.
• Celanese Clear Lake had a process upset that required flaring.
• LyondellBasell flared at its Channelview Complex.

There were minimal power outages in Texas and Louisiana, according to poweroutage.us, which showed 25,000 customers in Texas and less than 20,000 customers in Louisiana were without power.

Additional reporting by Tracy Dang, John Donnelly, Melissa Wheeler, Al Greenwood, Connor Phillips

(recasts with updates throughout)

Thumbnail shows ice and snow covering a Houston sign during Winter Storm Uri in 2021. Photo by David J Phillip/AP/Shutterstock