Extreme cold weather brings northern air as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. Fox News senior meteorologist Janice Dean and more.
As a winter storm plagues the state of Texas, some of the largest oil refineries in North America are closing in response to the icy temperature.
TEXAS POWER NET hit by extreme storm
Saudi Aramco’s Motiva Enterprises is temporarily shutting down its Port Arthur manufacturing complex due to inclement weather.
“Unprecedented freezing temperatures have safely and methodically shut down our Port Arthur manufacturing complex,” a Motiva spokesman said in a statement to FOX Business. “We are closely monitoring the weather conditions and will resume normal operations once it is safe.”
The factory, which covers approximately 1,400 acres and employs more than 1,500 people, has the largest oil refinery in North America, with a crude capacity of more than 630,000 barrels per day.
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ExxonMobil also said it would close facilities in Baytown and Beaumont, citing “icy weather conditions, coupled with the shortening of natural gas supplies throughout the state of Texas.”
“Our primary focus remains on the safety of employees, contractors and the communities in the region,” the ExxonMobil spokesman added.
| Ticker | Safety | Last | Alter | Alter% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| XOM | EXXON MOBIL CORPORATION | 50.52 | +0.68 | + 1.36% |
ExxonMobil’s Beaumont refinery processes 366,000 barrels of crude oil per day and produces 2.8 billion liters of petrol annually. The Baytown refinery has the capacity to process up to 584,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
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Meanwhile, Shell says that operations at its Deer Park plant are currently ‘stable’, but that it is monitoring the situation.
“We are closely monitoring the cold front in the area and taking the necessary precautions to ensure the safety of workers and manufacturing processes,” a Shell spokesman said. “All employees and contract partners working on the premises arrived on Sunday afternoon and will remain on the premises during the freezing point to reduce the number of vehicles on the roads and ensure their safety as well as that of our community and first response.”
The Deer Park plant has a crude oil capacity of approximately 340,000 barrels per day.
| Ticker | Safety | Last | Alter | Alter% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RDS.A | ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC | 38.51 | +1.19 | + 3.19% |
Shell also noted that the site continues to produce electric power, which is being exported to the Houston regional network to support ‘additional power consumption’ as the cold front passes.
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Texas leads the country in refining, with more than one-fifth of the refineries and more than three-tenths of the total refinery in the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The agency notes that Texas’ 30 workable petroleum refineries can process a total of nearly 5.8 million barrels of crude oil per calendar day.