Motiva Port Arthur Refinery Celebrates Milestone in Its Crude Expansion Project

PORT ARTHUR, Texas, Feb. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Motiva extended its thanks to Port Arthur and the surrounding communities for their continued support of its Port Arthur Refinery expansion project yesterday with a "topping-off" ceremony.  Motiva employees, community members, local businesses and government officials gathered at the refinery to see the progress being made on the expansion.  Motiva leadership thanked the community for its support and local business owners discussed the impact this project has had on their operations.

(Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100211/DA53548-a)

(Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100211/DA53548-b)

Photos of this event are attached.  Visuals include:

• The cleared site, ready for construction in 2007
• A comparison photo of the same area in its current state
• The tallest unit (approximately 32 stories or 375-feet tall) at the expanded refinery, the DCU2 (Delayed Coker Unit), being installed

Upon completion, Motiva Port Arthur will be one of the largest refineries in the world - with total crude throughput capacity at about 600,000 barrels per day.  The expansion project continues to boost the local and regional economies and is expected to continue employing a significant contract workforce as construction continues. It is expected to generate more than 6,500 construction jobs over the course of the project, and Motiva will have created as many as 300 full time jobs by project completion.  

"I want to thank the men and women who come to work on this expansion every day and the ones who will be working on the completed operation," said Nick Smallwood, Expansion Project Director.  "It requires a massive workforce with high-level skills to undertake such a huge construction project and operate what will become the nation's largest refinery."

The "topping-off" designation refers to the point in a construction project where the tallest structure has been set.  For the Motiva Port Arthur Refinery expansion, the tallest structure on site is the DCU2 coker unit, which will process pitch from the crude unit into gasoline and diesel-range products as well as petroleum coke, making the Port Arthur refinery the largest petroleum coke producer in the U.S. With a capacity of 95,000 barrels per day, the coker is more than 50 percent larger than the refinery's existing coker. The unit stands at 375 ft, the approximate height of a 32-story building.  Unlike the existing unit, however, it will be able to remove sulfur from the hydrocarbon stream and recover propane-propylene as a liquid for sale to chemical companies.

Quick facts:

• The expansion project is expected to generate more than 6,500 construction jobs over the course of the project and up to 300 permanent jobs.  A portion of those jobs have already been created and filled, with 41 percent of the new hires for the project being from Port Arthur.
• The expansion project will install more than 725 pumps, 19 compressors, 500 exchangers, four gas turbines, 600 miles of pipe, 1,000 miles of cable, and poured 285,000 cubic yards of concrete from more than 40,000 truck loads.
• The completed refinery will be capable of refining 6 million gallons of gasoline (enough to fill up 400,000 cars every day), more than 3.4 million gallons of ultra-low sulfur diesel and 1.3 million gallons of jet fuel on a daily basis.
• The expansion project is expected to generate more than $17 billion in new economic development in Port Arthur, Jefferson County and the Golden Triangle of Southeast Texas.

ABOUT MOTIVA

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Motiva Enterprises LLC is a refining and marketing joint venture owned by affiliates of Shell and Saudi Aramco.  Motiva's marketing operations support a network of more than 8,000 Shell-branded gasoline stations in the eastern and southern United States.  Company assets include three refineries located in Norco, Louisiana; Convent, Louisiana; and Port Arthur, Texas, currently capable of refining approximately 740,000 barrels per day, and ownership or partial interests in 41 product terminals.  More information is available at www.motivaenterprises.com.

SOURCE Motiva Enterprises LLC