US refiners eyeing early March storm recovery

US refiners expect to return to service by early March many of the facilities shut in last week's arctic blast.

Operators continue to add restart notifications as the industry recovers from conditions that dropped US crude processing to its lowest level since 2008. About 3.6mn b/d of the 5.4mn b/d of refining capacity disrupted in Texas alone have disclosed some stage of restart activity.

Below freezing conditions beginning late 14 February knocked more than half of Texas's peak power generating capacity offline as demand soared. The state's electric grid operator and gas regulators curtailed power and natural gas for industrial users as Texas struggled to deliver residential and other priority services. Blackouts abruptly cut service to several refineries early 15 February.

Marathon Petroleum notified state monitors of restart work on fluid catalytic cracking (FCC), alkylation and propylene units underway at its 585,000 b/d Galveston Bay refinery in Texas City. Emissions associated with the work would continue to 7 March.

Delek said today that its 73,000 b/d refineries in Tyler and Big Spring — on the edge of the Permian basin — would return to planned rates by March.

Refiners outside of Texas disclosed more of the storm's sweeping impact across the central US. HollyFrontier said its 135,000 b/d El Dorado, Kansas, and 100,000 b/d Artesia, New Mexico, refineries were affected by power and natural gas curtailments as well as the temperatures, but would both return to normal service by early March.

Valero notified federal monitors of a pipeline break associated with freezing conditions on 21 February at its 190,000 b/d refinery in Memphis, Tennessee.

Crude processing at US Gulf coast refineries fell in the week ended 19 February by 27pc to 6mn b/d, their lowest level since Hurricane Harvey flooded the Texas coast in late August and early September 2017. Midcontinent refineries reported a 12pc drop in processing from the previous week, to 3.2mn b/d.

By Elliott Blackburn