Saudi Aramco will not expand Port Arthur refinery’s capacity

Saudi Aramco announced that it will not expand the capacity of its refinery in Port Arthur in Texas, which has a current output of 603,000 barrels per day (bpd).

The refinery is the largest in the US and is controlled by Motiva Enterprises, a wholly-owned subsidiary by Aramco.

Earlier in April, Brian Coffman, Motiva’s CEO, revealed intentions for raising the refinery’s capacity to up to 1.5 million bpd, to be the largest in the world. This came after Port Arthur refinery became Motiva’s only refining asset following the dissolution of the Saudi Aramco and Shell joint venture.

Motiva intends to expand into petrochemicals in North America and investment decisions are expected to be finalized in 2019 on other possible projects along the Gulf of Mexico Coast.

In April, Motiva inked two agreements with France’s TechnipFMC and US’ Honeywell UOP to study petrochemical production technology to be used in a new chemical plant that was intended to be built at the Port Arthur refinery complex.

The company’s spokesperson highlighted that its decision to look outside Port Arthur is related to Hurricane Harvey, which resulted in losing lives and commerce in Texas in August last year.

In May 2017, Motiva announced a $12 billion investment with a likely additional investment of $18 billion by 2023 that are projected to boost the Port Arthur facility’s operations, create about 2,500 additional jobs in the short term and 12,000 jobs by 2023.