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Port Arthur Refinery
Motiva Enterprises has expanded its Port Arthur Refinery (PAR) in Texas by 325,000 barrels per day (bbl/d), taking total capacity to 600,000 bbl/d. Following its expansion, the PAR is now the largest refinery in the USA. Shell owns 50% of Motiva; the remaining 50% is owned by Saudi Aramco.
Key facts
| Location: | Gulf of Mexico, US |
|---|---|
| Category: | Complex refinery |
| Interest: | Shell 50%, Saudi-Aramco 50% |
Latest developments
On 31 May 2012 a turning of the valve ceremony took place at the Port Arthur refinery, celebrating the completion of a five year construction project that more than doubled the facility’s daily processing capacity to 600,000 barrels of crude.
Technology
The expanded Port Arthur refinery is now capable of handling most grades of crudes, even the lowest quality. A new three-unit naphtha processing complex includes a catalytic reformer which will convert 85,000 b/d into high octane gasoline for blending. The scale of the expansion includes 725 pumps, 19 compressors, 514 heat exchangers and several new tanks.
Economic development and society
At Port Arthur, where the local community supported the expansion, more than $17 billion has been generated in regional economic development. Around 14,500 people worked on the expansion project at peak construction and more than 300 new permanent jobs were created. Strategies were implemented that improved public infrastructure and reduced the impact of construction on local communities.
Markets
Shell has the largest branded fuels retailing network in the USA. The Port Arthur expansion will deliver increased supplies of petrol (gasoline), diesel and aviation fuel nationally as well as for export to other countries. The refinery’s strategic location on the Gulf of Mexico allows crude oil to be brought in by sea and it has excellent links to the national fuel distribution network.
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