Motiva Reports Work to Repair Pipe Corrosion at Port Arthur Refinery

By Rose Marton-Vitale

Motiva Port Arthur Refinery will perform maintenance to remedy previously announced corrosion issues at some of the piping throughout the plant's fuel gas system, according to a report filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Compressors at the West Side Gas Plant have already been removed and the filing, made public this week, said the company will temporarily place in service three replacement compressors. The use of these compressors could result in emissions and Motiva submitted the filing out of an abundance of caution, the report said.

Motiva submitted a similar notification for the compressors on April 23 and this follow-up was submitted because the maintenance work identified in the prior notice has not been completed.

The piping maintenance didn't interfere with the commissioning of Motiva's newly constructed 325,000-barrel-a-day crude distillation unit at the Port Arthur refinery last week. Crude oil processing rates reached about 80% of capacity, or about 500,000 barrels, before the new crude unit was shut, unplanned, on Monday to repair leaking valves.

The Port Arthur refinery has the capacity to process up to 600,000 barrels of crude oil a day.