California
At the end of last week ExxonMobil Corp brought units at the Torrance refinery back online after a period of planned maintenance. The company shut a hydrogen unit and coking unit for a hydrotreater overhaul at the plant at the start of June. The refinery also filed a report that flaring would be taking place at the facility over the weekend.
Louisiana
It has been reported that a fire that broke out at the Valero owned Meraux refinery did not cause any injuries or evacuations last week. The fire started at 1.45 am on 22nd July and was extinguished completely by 7 am. Investigations in to the cause of the fire are being carried out along with damage assessments.
Texas
Motiva Enterprises have announced that they will restart the Port Arthur refinery’s giant crude distillation unit at the start of 2013. The unit has been offline as corrosion problems are rectified at the 600 000 bpd facility.
Venezuela
PDVSA and TFY&V, an international consortium have singed a joint venture contract to expand the El Palito refinery. The expansion work is going to be carried out to ensure that the facility can meet international standards of product quality and process heavy Orinoco crudes to the optimum level. The consortium is made up of Toyo Engineering Construction, Foster Wheeler and Y&V.
Edited from various sources by Claira Lloyd