BP Restores Two Texas Units
Zacks Equity Research, On Friday July 1, 2011, 3:50 pm EDT
As per an emissions report filed with state regulators, British energy giant BP Plc (NYSE: BP) has restarted its gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking (FCC) unit No.1 in its Texas city refinery.The unit of the 437,080-barrels-per-day (bpd) refinery was shut in April following an electrical power failure. It was restarted and then was forced to go offline again on June 13 due to the loss of a blower. Some facilities like a hydrocracking unit and a reformer continue to be non-operational at the refinery.
In another development, BP resumed operations of a reformer in the Texas refinery and also informed that excess opacity at the refinerys gasoline-producing FCC unit No. 3 was not because of a production disruption. The reformer was closed in April when it was affected by power failures.
The refinery at BPs Texas City is expected to continue functioning at a low capacity till August after which the units are likely to revert to full capacity. In the ongoing second quarter, the plant is running at half capacity and continues to face problems related to some key downstream units.
Situated in Southeast Texas, south of Houston near Galveston Island, on 1,200 acres of land, Texas City Refinery is the third largest in the U.S. and produces 3% of the nations gasoline supply.
BP is one of the world’s largest energy companies, providing its customers with fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services and petrochemical products. We believe BP’s new strategy of active portfolio management, higher exploration activity and refining and marketing repositioning will create value for shareholders. The companys position will be further enhanced by a stronger oil price environment and a concentrated upstream portfolio.
However, we continue to see near-term headwinds with respect to weak U.S. refining margins and competitive disadvantages versus its European peers.
