Motiva may shut largest U.S. refinery during storms Marco, Laura
Motiva Enterprises was shutting the nation’s largest crude oil refinery on Monday ahead of expected heavy rains from tropical storms Marco and Laura this week, sources familiar with plant operations said.
Bringing down the 607,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas, refinery could take up to two days, the sources said.
The company was not immediately available to discuss operations at the refinery.
During 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, about 5 feet (1.52 meters) of rain fell on the refinery, forcing Motiva to completely shut down for nearly two weeks.
In 2018, because of the disruption during Harvey, the company canceled plans to expand the refinery, citing the threat of heavy flooding in the low-lying Port Arthur area during a future tropical storm.
Motiva, owned by Saudi Aramco, in 2019 bought a petrochemical plant in Port Arthur next to the refinery. (Reporting by Erwin Seba in Houston Editing by Matthew Lewis and Leslie Adler)
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