Harvey prompts force majeures, more US plant shutdowns

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Tropical Storm Harvey continues to pummel southeast Texas along the US Gulf Coast, disrupting operations at the nation’s hub for refineries and petrochemical plants, forcing a number of sites offline and prompting several companies to declare force majeure.

Harvey has brought over 25 inches (64 cm) of rain to portions of the region since Thursday, and another 10-12 inches is expected over parts of the upper Texas coast into southwestern Louisiana, the National Weather Service said late on Monday.

Although Formosa Plastics USA anticipates restarting its Point Comfort polymers and chlor-akali site later this week, it has declared force majeure on polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

Other declarations include:

-INEOS force majeure on PP after effects on Chocolate Bayou and La Porte;

-LyondellBasell force majeure on PE after shutdowns at Matagorda, Chocolate Bayou and La Porte;

-LyondellBasell force majeure on BD after production loss at Channelview; and

-Ascend force majeure on acrylonitrile (ACN), hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and disodium iminodiacetate (DSIDA) from Chocolate Bayou.

Meanwhile, several companies have confirmed shutdowns as a precaution to Harvey or production issues stemming from severe weather, heavy rains and flooding.

-American Acryl shuts Bayport acrylic acid.

-Braskem shuts Seadrift polypropylene (PP).

-Celanese shuts Pasadena methanol.

-Chevron Phillips Chemical (CP Chem) shuts certain operations at Cedar Bayou and Sweeny, as well as other facilities as appropriate. Previously, the company said it was conducting a sitewide shutdown at Cedar Bayou.

-CP Chem shuts Pasadena Plastics Complex, which produces PE.

-Citgo shuts Corpus Christi refinery.

-Covestro reduces operations at Baytown methyl di-p phenylene isocyanate (MDI), toluene di-isocyanate (TDI), polycarbonate (PC), aniline, chlorine.

-Dow Chemical shuts Seadrift operations. The company said it remains operational at remaining Texas sites. However, it had a process upset at Freeport olefins after a lightning strike to another facility.

-Enterprise shuts Mont Belvieu south plant.

-Enterprise said three of six propylene splitters at Mont Belvieu are in operation or in limited service.

-Enterprise shuts Shoup natural gas processing. Later, it said it shut six of eight natural gas processing plants.

-Enterprise’s ethane export terminal is out of service.

-Enterprise’s liquefied petroleum gas (LGP) export terminal is out of services.

-ExxonMobil shuts Baytown refinery and chemicals plant.

-Flint Hills Corpus Christi shuts refinery east and west.

-Flint Hills Resources flares at Houston propane dehydrogentation (PDH).

-Formosa shuts Point Comfort olefins 1 and olefins 2.

-Formsa shuts Point Comfort chlor-alkali.

-Hexion shuts Deer Park epoxy resin.

-Indorama unit trips at Clear Lake ethylene oxide.

-INEOS has upset at Chocolate Bayou olefins 1 and 2.

-INEOS shuts Green Lake acrylonitrile.

-INVISTA shuts Victoria nylon intermediates.

-Javelina shuts Corpus Christi gas processing.

-LyondellBasell shuts Bayport, Chocolate Bayou, Corpus Christi, La Porte, Matagorda and Victoria sites. Previously, the company said it was conducting preparations at its Corpus Christi olefins plant.

-LyondellBasell scaled back operations at its Houston refinery.

-Petrobras shuts Pasadena refinery.

-Phillips 66 suspended operations at its Freeport terminal, including liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) export, and Pasadena refined products terminal.

-Phillips 66 shuts Sweeny refinery.

-Shell shuts Deer Park refinery and chemicals plant.

-Occidental Chemical (OxyChem) shuts Ingleside ethylene and chlor-alkali.

-TPC boilers trip at Houston butadiene (BD) site.

-Valero shuts Corpus refineries and Three Rivers refinery.

Meanwhile:

-DuPont is down at its Victoria site for a previously planned outage. It will commence start-up activities when the weather improves.

-INEOS discovered a heat exchanger tube leak at its Pasadena site. Repairs are unable to commence until weather risks pass.

-Liquefied natural gas (LNG) export construction sites are also on alert.

Texas ports remain closed, and several railroad companies have issued embargoes or suspended operations.

To view an interactive map of petrochemical plants in Texas, click here. Use the drop-down menu to see plants by products, and zoom in to see more details.