Icy weather prompts upset, various issues at US refinery, petchem plants

Tracy Dang

18-Jan-2018

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Winter Storm Inga has brought icy weather to much of the US in the last few days, resulting in plant upsets and other issues at many refineries and petrochemical sites in the southern and eastern regions of the country.

Here is a list of some of the sites that have specified direct or indirect impacts from inclement weather:

AdvanSix reduced output of caprolactam and nylon 6 in Virginia after a production issue at its Hopewell plant.

BASF shut down its Freeport, Texas caprolactam 1 unit after a loss of power from a third party.

Braskem shut down its La Porte, Texas polypropylene (PP) unit due to frozen boiler transmitters.

Dow Chemical had a process upset at its Freeport Light Hydrocarbon 8 (LHC-8) unit.

ExxonMobil experienced elevated pressure at its Baytown, Texas refinery, resulting in flaring.

Huntsman shut down its Port Neches, Texas ethylene oxide (EO) units after they tripped.

LyondellBasell had a process compressor issue at its Corpus Christi, Texas olefins unit.

LyondellBasell shut down its Matagorda high-density polyethylene (HDPE), Texas, plant due to equipment failure.

Valero had process upsets at its Port Arthur, Texas refinery.

Here is a list of other plant issues in the last few days, in which details were not specified or in which it was unclear if they were weather-related:

CITGO had a process upset at its fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit at its Corpus Christi refinery.

CITGO had a process upset at its sulphur recovery unit (SRU) at its Corpus Christi refinery.

Enterprise Products experienced flaring at its Mont Belvieu, Texas propylene splitters I and III.

Enterprise Products had an equipment trip at its Belvieu Environmental Fuels (BEF) unit after a loss of power from a third party.

Flint Hills Resources shut down its Houston propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit after a loss of pressure to the compressor.

LyondellBasell shut down unit D at its Bayport, Texas PP site after a power outage caused an upset.

LyondellBasell had a unit upset at its Bayport propylene oxide (PO) site.

Motiva had a process incident at its Port Arthur refinery.

OCI experienced a trip at its Beaumont ammonia and methanol plants.

(recasts with Dow process upset at its Freeport olefins unit and LyondellBasell shutdown at its Matagorda HDPE plant)

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