Harvey prompts more force majeures on continued shutdowns

(recasts with updated throughout)

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Harvey moved into the Mississippi valley on Thursday, as the nation’s refinery and petrochemical hub in the US Gulf region dealt with the storm’s aftermath amid ongoing shutdowns, explosions and production issues as well as force majeure declarations.

The former hurricane and tropical storm was downgraded to a tropical depression. Still, rains continued across far eastern Texas and western Louisiana through the lower Mississippi valley and into the Tennessee and Ohio valleys and central Appalachians, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said.

The following updates were made available on Thursday:

– Arkema confirmed that explosions and smoke have been reported at its Crosby liquid organic peroxides plant in Texas. The plant closed on 25 August as a precaution, but rainfall and floods disrupted the electrical supply needed to keep those chemicals refrigerated.

– Celanese remained down at Bay City, Bishop and Clear Lake. Previously, a process trip caused a unit to be shut down at Pasadena.

– Dow declared force majeure on methyl di-p phenylene isocyanate (MDI).

– Eastman assessed its Texas City plant after shutdown.

– Enterprise is evaluating potential curtailment of natural gas liquid (NGL) fractionation at Mont Belvieu, Texas.

– Huntsman plans to resume regular shift schedules at Conroe, Texas. Port Neches, Texas remains in shutdown mode. The company is assessing the status of Chocolate Bayou, Dayton, Freeport and Houston sites in Texas.

– INEOS declared force majeure on phenol and acetone.

– INVISTA lost power at its adiponitrile (ADN) operations in Orange, Texas and shuts hydrogen cyanide (HCN) production.

– INVISTA is restarting Victoria nylon intermediates plant.

– Lucite shut down its Beaumont methyl methacrylate (MMA) plant.

– LyondellBasell declared force majeure on styrene.

– Olin declared force majeure on chlor-alkali from Freeport, Texas

– Occidental Chemical (OxyChem) declared force majeure on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) after Pasadena and Deer Park shutdowns.

– Phillips 66 shut down its Beaumont terminal. Its Lake Charles and Alliance refineries and terminals in Louisiana continue to operate.

The ports of Houston, Texas City, Galveston and Freeport reopened with certain vessel traffic restrictions, as did Corpus Christi.

Several others remain closed including Beaumont, Lake Charles, Mont Belvieu, Port Arthur and Port Neches.

Several railroad companies completed repairs and started restoring services after previously issuing embargoes or suspending operations.

As previously reported, several companies have declared force majeure or implemented allocation because of Harvey.

– Ascend declared force majeure on acrylonitrile (ACN), hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and disodium iminodiacetate (DSIDA) from Chocolate Bayou.

– BASF declared force majeure on acrylic monomers and oxo-alcohols.

– Celanese declared force majeure on vinyl acetate monomer (VAM).

– Covestro declared force majeure on methyl di-p phenylene isocyanate (MDI), toluene di-isocyanate (TDI), polyols, liquid caustic soda (50%), hydrochloric acid (HCl) (36%), hexamethylene di-isocyanate (HDI), isophorone di-isocyanate (IPDI), select pre-polymers and aspartics from Baytown and Channelview, Texas.

– ExxonMobil issued allocation on hydrocarbon fluids and methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) from Baytown, Texas.

– Formosa declared force majeure on polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

– Formosa declared force majeure on chlor-alkali.

– INEOS declared force majeure on polypropylene (PP) after the storm’s effects on Chocolate Bayou and La Porte, Texas.

– INVISTA declared force majeure on butanediol (BDO).

– LyondellBasell declared force majeure on PE after shutdowns at Matagorda, Chocolate Bayou and La Porte, Texas.

– LyondellBasell declared force majeure on butadiene (BD) and butanediol (BDO) after production loss at Channelview, Texas.

– LyondellBasell declared force majeure on several products including ethylene oxide (EO), ethylene glycols (EG), propylene glycol (PG), glycol ethers, ethanolamines after issues at Bayport, Texas.

– LyondellBasell declared force majeure on acetic acid and vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) after issues at La Porte, Texas.

– Monument declared force majeure on Texas-based products.

Meanwhile, several companies are planning restarts at their facilities:

– Enterprise Mont Belvieu fractionators.

– Flint Hills Corpus Christi west refinery and east refinery.

– Formosa Point Comfort olefins 1 and olefins 2, although actual restart activities have yet to begin.

– Marathon Texas City refinery.

– Valero Corpus Christi and Three Rivers refineries.

Previously, several companies had shut down or reduced operating rates in Texas as a precaution to Harvey, or had production issues stemming from severe weather, heavy rains and flooding.

– A Schulman kept three Houston “”>facilities closed.

– American Acryl shut down Bayport acrylic acid.

– Berry shut down two plastics plants.

– Braskem shut down Seadrift polypropylene (PP).

– Celanese shut down Pasadena methanol.

– Chevron Phillips Chemical (CP Chem) shut down certain operations at Cedar Bayou and Sweeny, as well as other facilities as appropriate. Previously, the company said it was conducting a sitewide shutdown at Cedar Bayou.

– CP Chem shut down its Pasadena Plastics Complex, which produces (PE).

– CP Chem shut down its Port Arthur complex.

– Citgo shut down its Corpus Christi refinery.

– Covestro reduced operations at Baytown MDI, TDI, polycarbonate (PC), aniline and chlorine. Later, the company said it has suspended production on most products at Baytown and Channelview.

– DCP shut down Andrews natural gas processing plant.

– Dow flared at Texas City vinyl acetate monomer (VAM).

– Dow shut down Seadrift operations. The company said it remains operational at remaining Texas sites. However, it had a process upset at Freeport olefins after a lightning strike to another facility.

– DuPont shut down its Orange olefins plant.

– Enterprise shut down its Mont Belvieu south plant.

– Enterprise said three of six propylene splitters are in operation or in limited service.

– Enterprise shut down its Shoup natural gas processing. Later, it said it shut six of eight natural gas processing plants, including Shoup.

– Enterprise’s ethane export terminal is out of service.

– Enterprise’s liquefied petroleum gas (LGP) export terminal is out of service.

– ExxonMobil shut down its Baytown refinery and chemicals plant.

– ExxonMobil reduced rates at Beaumont refinery and later shuts the refinery. The company shut some units at its olefins and polyethylene (PE) site.

– Flint Hills Corpus Christi shut down its east refinery and west refinery.

– Flint Hills Resources flared at Houston propane dehydrogentation (PDH).

– Flint Hills shut down its Port Arthur olefins plant.

– Formosa shut down its Point Comfort olefins 1 and olefins 2.

– Formosa shut down its Point Comfort chlor-alkali.

– Hexion shut down its Deer Park epoxy resin.

– Huntsman shut down its Chocolate Bayou, Conroe, Dayton, Houston, Freeport and Port Neches sites.

– An Indorama unit tripped at Clear Lake ethylene oxide.

– INEOS had an upset at Chocolate Bayou olefins 1 and 2 plants.

– INEOS shut down its Green Lake acrylonitrile plant.

– INVISTA shut down its Victoria nylon intermediates plant.

– Javelina shut down its Corpus Christi gas processing.

– LyondellBasell shut down its Bayport, Chocolate Bayou, Corpus Christi, La Porte, Matagorda and Victoria sites. Previously, the company said it was conducting preparations at its Corpus Christi olefins plant.

– LyondellBasell shut down or partially shut down its BD production at Channelview.

– LyondellBasell scaled back operations at its Houston refinery.

– LyondellBasell had a power supply interruption at Channelview olefins and methanol. Earlier, market sources said the company had shut down one of its two crackers.

– Marathon shut down its Texas City refinery.

– Motiva reduced rates at Port Arthur refinery and later shuts the refinery.

– Petrobras shut down its Pasadena refinery.

– Phillips 66 suspended operations at its Freeport terminal, including liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) export, and Pasadena refined products terminal.

– Phillips 66 shut down its Sweeny refinery.

– Shell shut down its Deer Park refinery and chemicals plant.

– Occidental Chemical (OxyChem)/OxyVinyls shut down Ingleside ethylene and chlor-alkali.

– Stolt shut down its Houston bulk-liquid storage terminal.

– Targa shut down its Cedar Bayou fractionator.

– Targa received a natural gas liquid (NGL) sales curtailment.

– Total had a power outage that caused its Port Arthur refinery to shut down.

– TPC boilers tripped at its Houston butadiene (BD) site.

– TPC shut its operations at its Port Neches site.

– Valero shut down its Corpus Christi refineries and Three Rivers refinery.

– Valero shut down itss Port Arthur refinery.

Meanwhile:

– DuPont is down at its Victoria site for a previously planned outage. It will commence start-up activities when the weather improves.

– INEOS discovered a heat exchanger tube leak at its Pasadena site. Repairs are unable to commence until weather risks pass.

To view an interactive map of petrochemical plants in Texas, click here. Use the drop-down menu to see plants by products, and zoom in to see more details.