Reuters article published Tue Jul 15, 2014 under the headline: “Damaged heater likely shut distillation unit at Motiva refinery”
(Reuters) – A heavily damaged heater on a newly commissioned 325,000 barrel per day (bpd) crude distillation unit is the likely cause of a unexpected shutdown that may last up to five months at Motiva Enterprises 600,000 bpd Port Arthur, Texas, refinery, according to experts.
In late April, Motiva, a joint-venture of Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Saudi Aramco, started the new crude distillation unit (CDU), which was the centerpiece of a 5-year, $10-billion project to make the refinery the largest in the United States.read more
“If it had been built better, if it had been designed better, it could be running more crude…”
Extracts from a Reuters article by Erwin Seba published by The Chicago Tribune on 3 July 2014
HOUSTON (Reuters) – The nation’s largest refinery hit a throughput milestone last week, processing 615,000 barrels in one day for the first time since a series of setbacks that followed its $10 billion expansion, sources familiar with operations said. The 2.5 percent increase in crude oil intake one day in late June, trumpeted in a company email, showed the continuing impacts of a troubled start-up after the expansion, the sources said. “If it had been built better, if it had been designed better, it could be running more crude,” said one of the sources. A Motiva official declined to comment.read more
According to the lawsuit, on July 31, 2011, Carrell was working at the Motiva facility when an explosion occurred, causing him to suffer bodily injuries.
Discovery continues to dominant litigation brought by Jasper County resident Tommy Carrell Jr., who sued Motiva Enterprises for alleged injuries he received in an explosion that occurred in July 2011 at the Port Arthur refinery.
As previously reported, the suit was filed Feb. 5 in Jefferson County District Court.Â
Court records show the latest filing in the suit was a certificate of discovery filed Aug. 27.
The document shows Motiva served Carrell with its second request for production.read more
Petrodollars: A lot of smart oil people caught up in problems at a Motiva plant
By News Desk: September 16, 2013
A big expansion project at the Port Arthur, Texas refinery owned by Motiva–the Shell-Saudi joint venture–has been far from the success story envisioned by the two partners. In this week’s Oilgram News column Petrodollars, Janet McGurty looks at the problems there.
Motiva’s Port Arthur refinery expansion woes have people wondering how it could all go so wrong for a group of companies with so much expertise.
The refinery, which was expanded from 325,000 b/d to 600,000 b/d, is owned by Shell and Saudi Aramco.read more
Abbott also takes on a headache in the form of the company’s Motiva U.S. refining joint venture operation, where a new refinery unit faces piping and vibration problems .
Thu Sep 12, 2013 1:10pm BST
By Andrew Callus
(Reuters) – Shell is to make John Abbott head of its fuels and chemicals business, pitching the deliverer of its Canadian oil sands expansion project into an industry debate over whether the “downstream” business he will run still fits with oil and gas extraction.
A 53-year-old Briton who joined Europe’s top oil company straight from university in 1981, Abbott is credited with bringing Royal Dutch Shell’s Athabasca oil sands expansion project in Canada on stream in the period 2008-2012.read more
Anyone who has read the postings made on this website in recent years by insiders working on the Motiva Refinery expansion project should not be in the least surprised by the series of serious mishaps following the restart, which taken together, can only be described as a complete and utter shambles.
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.read more
Sources said refinery managers spoke of their frustration on Monday with problems that have plagued the expanded plant. “It was a bad weekend for us,” said one source. “We’re all feeling snake-bit. It just seems like we get up and going and then something else goes wrong.”
Tue Aug 20, 2013 2:28am IST
* ‘Feeling snake-bit’ * Second fire in week * Vibration problem lingers
By Erwin Seba
PORT ARTHUR, Texas, Aug 19 (Reuters) – A fire at the largest oil refinery in the United States has knocked out more than half of its output for at least two weeks, the latest in a string of mishaps following a $10-billion expansion at the Motiva plant in Port Arthur, Texas.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc – which owns the refinery with Saudi Aramco – said the fire on Saturday, the second in a week, slowed and shuttered units at the 600,000 barrel-per-day plant and hurt production.read more
A new piping problem may force the newest crude distillation unit at Motiva’s Port Arthur refinery, the largest plant in the United States, to run up to 75,000 barrels-per-day below capacity through fall of next year.
By Erwin Seba
HOUSTON | Fri Aug 16, 2013 12:45pm EDT
(Reuters) – A new piping problem may force the newest crude distillation unit at Motiva’s Port Arthur refinery, the largest plant in the United States, to run up to 75,000 barrels-per-day below capacity through fall of next year.
Sources familiar with refinery operations said one of the pipes taking crude oil into the 600,000 bpd refinery’s new CDU has suffered continuous vibration problems when it runs at or near full capacity for more than five months.read more
Motiva Enterprises LLC’s Port Arthur, Texas, refinery is completely shut down after losing power yesterday, a person familiar with operations said.
There isn’t a timeline for restarting the plant, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The refinery is the largest in the U.S. with a capacity of 600,000 barrels a day.
Entergy Corp. restored electricity to the three plants in Port Arthur, owned by Motiva, Total Petrochemicals USA Inc. and Valero Energy Corp., which account for 1.08 million barrels a day of refining capacity.read more
Published December 21, 2012 by Dow Jones Newswires
Motiva Enterprises LLC most likely will not be able to restart for a few more days a main processing unit at its refinery expansion in Port Arthur, Texas, a person familiar with the refinery’s operations said Friday.
Motiva has been struggling to restart the 325,000-barrel-a-day refinery expansion’s crude distillation unit since the unit went down in early July. The $10 billion expansion was to bring the combined refinery’s capacity to 600,000 barrels a day and make it the largest in the U.S. and one of the 10 largest in the world.read more
* Repairs to fractured pipe could take several days, sources say
* 325,000 barrel per day crude unit was in process of restarting
* New crude unit had previously been shut due to corrosion issue
* Gasoline prices jump on fire, pare gains after damage report
By Erwin Seba
PORT ARTHUR, Texas, Dec 12 (Reuters) – Motiva Enterprises aborted the restart of a major new crude oil unit at its Port Arthur, Texas, plant after a fractured pipe caused a small fire late on Tuesday, the latest glitch to bedevil the country’s biggest refinery.read more
By Selina Williams: Published November 20, 2012 by Dow Jones Newswires
Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) is confident the U.S. government will approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline extension that will carry crude from western Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast, its chief financial officer Simon Henry said Tuesday.
“We remain confident the U.S. government will take a balanced view…and allow the full extension to proceed,” Mr. Henry told a Canadian energy event in London.
The re-election of President Barack Obama has revived hopes the oil pipeline will gain government approval after environmentalists were instrumental in getting the scheme blocked last year.read more
Nov 1 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Finance Director Simon Henry said the company was “nearly there” in ramping up to full output at its Pearl Gas to Liquids (GTL) facility in Qatar and that the company was “on track” to restart the 325,000 barrels-a-day damaged Port Arthur refinery unit in the United States.
He was speaking at a presentation of Shell’s third-quarter results.
While Chevron’s Richmond refinery has been making the news lately with a very visible incident, our attention has been drawn to less noticed recent events in America’s biggest refining center on the Gulf Coast, where what was to become the country’s largest refinery also ran into a spot of trouble.
You’d think that if you had spent 5 years and over $10 billion building a new refinery you might get to run it a few months before you had to shut it down for repairs. Not so the Motiva Port Arthur refinery expansion, which is essentially a new refinery bolted onto an old one.read more
(Reuters) – A new crude oil pipeline from a key terminal in Louisiana to refineries near Port Arthur, Texas, will be built at about half the size envisioned late last year, Shell Pipeline LP said on Thursday after securing customer commitments for the project.
The Westward Ho Pipeline, which will carry crude oil from St. James, Louisiana, to Gulf of Mexico refiners just across the Texas border, will have an initial capacity of 300,000 barrels per day, the subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) said.read more
Sir Henri Deterding, the controversial and outspoken founder of Royal Dutch Shell, now haunts the website. Wise to all the knowledge of Shell, and its shellanigans, he delivers informative and satirical insight to anything about Shell. He's a grumpy old sod, so you'll have to excuse his bluntness.
Click the big chat-bubble (bottom-right of the website)to ask Sir Henri a question. Enjoy!
SHELL EXECUTIVES AT THE CENTER OF A SCHEME TO STEAL $1.3 BILLION FROM NIGERIA’S PEOPLE
SHELL ADMITS DEALING WITH NIGERIAN MONEY LAUNDERER – BBC NEWS
SHELL, ENI AND NIGERIAN OFFICIALS IN OPL 245 CORRUPTION SCANDAL
INVESTIGATION OF OPL 245 NIGERIAN OIL CORRUPTION SCANDAL
DUTCH EARTHQUAKES CAUSED BY SHELL/EXXON
SHELL KILLS FOR OIL IN NIGERIA
SHELL LIED ABOUT CLEANING UP OIL IN NIGER DELTA
SHELL SPIES INFILTRATED NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT
LEGO DROPS SHELL OVER GREENPEACE OIL SPILL VIDEO
SHELL ARCTIC DRILLING ACCIDENTS
SHELL KNEW ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE DECADES AGO
ROYAL DUTCH SHELL FOUNDER SIR HENRI DETERDING, NAZI FINANCIER
JOHN DONOVAN PROMOTIONAL GAMES FOR SHELL AND OTHER CLIENTS
Listen and read proof in audio and transcript form of Shell CEO Ben van Beurden’s cover-up tactics in the OPL 245 Nigerian corruption scandal. The instruction given by him in the covertly recorded call to CFO Simon Henry was at odds with Shell’s claimed core business principles. Cover-up and obstruction, instead of transparency and integrity, says Shell critic John Donovan
I used shell broadband. It was by far the worst broadband provider ever! The internet did not work most days. I had their super fast broadband and it dropped out constantly. Watching a movie was awful with the constant buffering. Customer support was super slow. Now their going to charge me for the useless router which I have sent back.
I ordered shell energy broadband on nov 2. I was promised connection the following week. They initiated the direct debit. I called the following week and was told router would arrive on 13 and service would go live on 17. No further email or communication until 20 when I was told service would start on 30th. Spent 10 minutes waiting on phone line and spoke to a polite assistant who was absolutely useless in solving my problem. Avoid this unprofessional and chaotic… Read more
Shell Energy Broadband Service is Appalling
The worst ever
I used shell broadband. It was by far the worst broadband provider ever! The internet did not work most days. I had their super fast broadband and it dropped out constantly. Watching a movie was awful with the constant buffering. Customer support was super slow. Now their going to charge me for the useless router which I have sent back.
Date of experience: 21 November 2023
By far the worst broadband provider ever!
30 November 2023: Posted by John Donovan
The content below is sourced from current verifiable customer reviews of Shell Energy published on Trustpilot.
Extremely slow broadband for 10 months, not fixed.I have had slow broadband well below the guaranteed speed for 10 months and Shell Energy have not been able to fix it.They have tried sending about 4 or 5 engineers but have not fixed the problem.Gurps, who I have been dealing with most recently, has been friendly and polite, alth… Read more
Extremely Slow Shell Broadband
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