The largest U.S. refinery was shutting down completely on Wednesday morning as heavy rains from Tropical Storm Harvey flooded the 603,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas, plant, owner Motiva Enterprises said in a statement.
"At 5 a.m. (CDT (1000 GMT) on Wednesday, Motiva began a controlled shutdown of the Port Arthur refinery in response to increasing local flood conditions," the company said.
Motiva also said restarting the refinery would depend on flood waters receding.
A U.S. government meteorologist said rainfall totals from the Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas, area may exceed those in the Houston area from the storm.
The Beaumont-Port Arthur area received "an incredible amount of rain overnight," said David Roth, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration meteorologist.
The observation point at the regional airport shows a rain total in the past 24 hours that "appears to exceed anything reported around Houston within 24 hours during Harvey"s passage," Roth said.
Exxon Mobil"s Beaumont refinery along with Total"s and Valero Energy Corp"s Port Arthur refineries were shut on Tuesday and Wednesday due to the storm.
No comments:
Post a Comment