MOSCOW (MRC) -- Exxon Mobil Corp operates it 502,500 barrel-per-day Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery at low capacity utilisation as poor demand has pushed up inventories and filled storage tanks, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to sources familiar with plant operations.
The number of contract workers at the Baton Rouge refinery was cut by 1,800 people as Exxon begun informing service companies of planned spending cuts.
The refinery’s production was cut to about 440,000 bpd, the sources said.
The number of contract workers at the refinery is usually 2,000 and increases when major overhauls are underway, the sources familiar with operations said.
Contract workers are employed by the third-party service companies that Exxon has been informing of its spending plans.
Social distancing and working from home to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus in the United States has reduced demand for motor fuel across the country. At least three refineries in California have cut production as well.
Exxon’s Baton Rouge refinery restored full production on March 9 after it was shut by a Feb. 12 fire.
The Baton Rouge refinery is the second-largest in Louisiana and Exxon’s second-largest in the United States.
As MRC informed before, in September 2019, ExxonMobil announced plans to spend GBP140 million over the next two years in an additional investment program at its Fife ethylene plant, which has a capacity of more than 800,000 t/y.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 383,760 tonnes in the first two month of 2020, up by 14% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased due to the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 192,760 tonnes in January-February 2020, down by 6% year on year. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main decrease in imports.
ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC