The biggest U.S. oil refinery could shut its main crude distillation unit for up to three months next year to replace a vibrating pipe that prevents the 325,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) unit from running at full capacity, sources familiar with operations said. That would be another blow to the Motiva Enterprises, 600,000-bpd plant since the $10-billion (U.S.)refinery, in Port Arthur, Tex., opened last year. Motiva is owned by Royal Dutch Shell and Saudi Aramco.
ERWIN SEB: HOUSTON — Reuters: Published
The biggest U.S. oil refinery could shut its main crude distillation unit for up to three months next year to replace a vibrating pipe that prevents the 325,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) unit from running at full capacity, sources familiar with operations said.
That would be another blow to the Motiva Enterprises, 600,000-bpd plant since the $10-billion (U.S.)refinery, in Port Arthur, Tex., opened last year. Motiva is owned by Royal Dutch Shell and Saudi Aramco.
“In keeping with our disclosure policy, we cannot provide detail on the timing of maintenance at specific units, or how long it will take to complete maintenance activities,†a Shell official said.
The fall of 2014 is likely the earliest time repair work could be carried out on the 16-inch (40.64 cm) pipe, which moves crude in the refinery’s main unit, the VPS-5 unit, and suffers from excessive vibration, according to the sources.
This means the refinery would be without its main crude unit just as markets seek to build up inventories of distillate ahead of winter.
“It will have to be a larger pipe,†said one of the sources. “It will be a fix of the fix they made after the caustic leak,†said the source, referring to repairs following from a chemical leak in mid-2012.
The refinery has faced numerous problems.
Last year, it was forced to shut the main unit, the centrepiece of the massive expansion that made Port Arthur the biggest U.S. plant, for seven-and-a-half months of work after a small chemical spill of undiluted caustic sodium hydroxide into the system that pitted and cracked thousands of feet of stainless steel pipe.
VPS-5 has only reached its rated capacity of 325,000 bpd one time and rarely run above 300,000 bpd. Most often it runs between 250,000 bpd and 280,000 bpd, and production rates are not expected to go beyond that until the pipe is replaced, sources said, due to the vibrations caused by running at full throttle.
The vibration can cause leaks on the pipe, which had already been replaced once due to the caustic spill.
Plans to boost the crude unit’s capacity by 20 per cent by improving its efficiency were scrapped in March due to the pipe vibrations.
Replacement of the pipe would come after the refinery moves past two fires last week that shut three units.
Those fires, which affected a hydro-cracker and a sulphur recovery unit, will take at least two weeks to recover from, sources said. The second fire prompted the idling of VPS-5 but did not damage it.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
MORE DETAILS:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
