- The Motiva oil refinery in Port Arthur, Tex. - the largest in the U.S. - says it has cut production rates to 60% capacity, as refiners along the Texas Gulf coast continue to battle the effects of Tropical Storm Harvey.
- The Saudi Aramco-owned refinery can produce 603K bbl/day, which would mean ~240K bbl/day is offline; the move brings the total amount of refining capacity offline to ~2.3M bbl/day, more than 15% of total U.S. refining capacity.
- Motiva says its operations remain stable but the big problem is getting crude oil and processed fuel in and out of the refinery due to problems with shipping, pipelines and transportation.
- Eight refineries along the Gulf coast are now completely shut, including Exxon Mobil 's (NYSE:XOM) Baytown refinery, the second largest in the U.S.; Valero Energy 's (NYSE:VLO) Port Arthur operation has closed two units because of flooding, and Total's (NYSE:TOT) plant there is said to have cut its output to a minimum.
- ETFs: USO, OIL, UWT, UCO, DWT, SCO, BNO, DBO, DTO, USL, DNO, OLO, SZO, OLEM, OILK, WTIU, OILX, WTID, USOI
- Now read: Why Are Oil Prices Falling Today?
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