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Lyondellbasell News

12 Sep 2019

USCG Shuts Upper Houston Ship Channel Amid Protests

The U.S. Coast Guard closed the upper Houston Ship Channel on Thursday morning as 11 Greenpeace USA protesters blocked a portion of the country's largest oil port near Baytown, Texas, the agency said.The channel is closed from Light 102A to Light 104, the Coast Guard said in a notice.The closure of the Ship Channel at that location blocks tanker ship traffic to and from five major refineries in the Houston area, including Exxon Mobil Corp's 560,500-barrel-per-day refinery in Baytown, which is 26 miles (42 km) east of downtown Houston.One ship was waiting to enter the Ship Channel, which links the Gulf of Mexico and the Port of Houston…

28 Mar 2019

Tanker Bottleneck Eases for Port of Houston

The sprawling Houston area refining complex adjacent to the Houston Ship Channel. CREDIT: AdobeStock / © Irina K)

Four tankers on Thursday were preparing to offload or pick up cargoes in the busiest U.S. oil port, the first signs of an easing of the bottleneck that cut 1 million barrels per day of shipments, according to vessel tracking data.The Houston Ship Channel reopened this week with operating restrictions following a fire at Mitsui & Co Inc's Intercontinental Terminals Co (ITC) in Deer Park, Texas. That blaze sent fuel and chemicals into the waterway, which connects Houston to the…

25 Mar 2019

TX Refineries Cut Output as Spill Curbs Shipping

Royal Dutch Shell Plc and LyondellBasell Industries cut production on Monday at their Houston-area oil refineries because of shipping disruptions along a waterway affected by a petrochemical fire and spill, according to people familiar with the matter.A fire and fuel leak at Mitsui & Co Inc's Intercontinental Terminals Co (ITC) storage facility in Deer Park, Texas, last week sent gasoline, water and fire suppressant foam into the Houston Ship Channel, which connects Houston to the Gulf of Mexico, and is home to nine oil refineries.The U.S. Coast Guard said it was reopening portions of the channel to daytime travel and requiring vessels moving out of the area nearest ITC to be inspected for chemical contaminates.Houston Pilots…

25 Mar 2019

Houston Ship Channel Reopened

The Houston Ship Channel and Refining complex (CREDIT: AdobeStock / © Irina K

The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday reopened portions of the Houston Ship Channel with restrictions on waterways affected by the petrochemical leak outside Houston that has disrupted ship traffic.The busiest U.S. oil port, shut last Friday after a chemical leak into the water, led Royal Dutch Shell Plc and LyondellBasell Industries to cut production on Monday, according to people familiar with their operations.In a midday announcement, the Coast Guard said it is allowing daytime transits only through the ship channel…

06 Sep 2016

Houston Ship Channel Re-opens to Some Vessel Traffic

The Houston Ship Channel re-opened to some vessel traffic on Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. Coast Guard said, after an early morning tanker fire prompted closure of the waterway. The U.S. Coast Guard Houston Vessel Traffic Service said it would commence with tow vessel transit outbound from Old River and San Jacinto River. That would be followed by inbound movements, it said. The Houston Ship Channel links the busiest U.S. petrochemical port to the Gulf of Mexico. Four Houston-area refineries were unable to receive crude oil from tankers on Tuesday after a portion of the channel was shut by an early-morning fire aboard an empty tanker. The fire began shortly after midnight CDT (0500 GMT) aboard the 810-foot (247-meter) tanker the Aframax River and was extinguished within a few hours.

06 Sep 2016

Part of Houston Ship Channel Shut; Tankers Stopped to 4 Refineries

Four Houston-area refineries were unable to receive crude oil from tankers on Tuesday after a portion of the Houston Ship Channel was shut due to a fire aboard an empty tanker, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. In Texas, Valero Energy Corp's Houston refinery, LyondellBasell Industries' Houston refinery, Petrobras' Pasadena refinery and Royal Dutch Shell's joint-venture Deer Park refinery have crude on-site in storage tanks and also have access to long-distance and short-haul pipeline systems. The four refineries have a combined crude oil throughput of 761,505 barrels per day (bpd), equal to 4 percent of U.S. refining capacity. The Coast Guard was conducting assessments about how long it would take to move the Aframax River…

26 Feb 2016

Houston Ship Channel Closed Due to Tug Fire

Houston Marine Fire Department boat on scene after a tug boat that was moored caught fire around 2 a.m., Feb. 26, 2016. U.S. Coast Guard Station Houston boat crews established a safety zone to assist in firefighting efforts. (USCG photo by Joseph Mccune)

The U.S. Coast Guard Captain of the Port has briefly closed a portion of the Houston Ship Channel, as coast guard crews and local fire departments responded to a tugboat engulfed in flames, moored at the LyondellBasell refinery, about 2 miles east of Interstate 610, Friday. The tugboat, San Gabriel, was moored next to an empty sulfur barge when it caught fire and the crewmembers were able to evacuate safely, the Coast Guard said. The refinery called Vessel Traffic Service Houston-Galveston watchstanders to report the fire.

14 Dec 2015

Houston Ship Channel Reopened After Ship Fire

The Houston Ship Channel was re-opened after a burning tanker prompted a nearly three-hour shutdown of a two-mile-long (3.20-km-long) section of the largest petrochemical port in the United States. The fire was extinguished nearly 90 minutes after it started, but the channel remained closed for nearly another 90 minutes as firefighters monitored the air to ensure no toxic fumes lingered, Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Andrew Kendrick said. "Initially it was a big fire, but it came down pretty quickly," he said. Earlier on Monday, flames were seen shooting from the tanker Navigator Europa, moored outside the Targa LPG export terminal, according to a source and Reuters vessel tracking data. A representative for Targa Resources Corp did not respond to a phone call seeking comment.

14 Dec 2015

Tanker Blaze Shuts Part of Houston Ship Channel

A burning tanker in the Houston Ship Channel on Monday prompted the U.S. Coast Guard to close a two-mile-long (3.20-km-long)section of the largest petrochemical port in the United States. The fire was extinguished nearly 90 minutes after it started, but the channel remained closed as firefighters monitored the air to ensure no toxic fumes lingered, Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Andrew Kendrick said. "Initially it was a big fire, but it came down pretty quickly," he said. Kendrick confirmed that the tanker was loading ethylene when the fire started, and said no injuries had been reported. Ethylene is a chemical used in making plastic. He said a few outbound ships were waiting to move, and a tugboat was waiting to go further into the channel.

16 Jun 2015

Tropical Storm Bill Pelts Texas Coast

Tropical Storm Bill punched the Texas coast with heavy rains and strong winds on Tuesday, the National Weather Service said, just three weeks after floods killed about 30 people in the state. The second named tropical storm of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season made landfall near Matagorda, a sportfishing town near the South Texas Nuclear Generating Station in Bay City, a coastal nuclear power plant. Spokesman Buddy Eller said the plant had prepared for the storm and operations were normal with full staffing. Companies said output from oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, which pumps about a fifth of all domestic crude, was unaffected. But BP Plc shut its Mad Dog and Atlantis fields early on Tuesday after a pipeline outage that was expected to be fixed soon, a source said.

28 Aug 2014

Iraq to Appeal US Court Decision on Kurdish Oil

The Iraqi oil ministry said on Thursday it would challenge a U.S. court decision that stopped U.S. Marshals from seizing some one million barrels of disputed Kurdish oil docked near Texas. On Monday, a U.S. district court ruled in favour of a request by Iraq's Kurdish region that a demand by the Iraqi government for U.S. authorities to seize the Kurdish oil shipment be scrapped. However, the court gave Baghdad 10 days to resubmit its case. "The ministry of oil is emphasising that it is preparing the amended request and will forward it in the required period," the oil ministry said in a statement. "The decision of the court is only to lift the seizure of the shipment while at sea. Therefore they referred to American maritime law.

25 Aug 2014

Tanker Carrying Kurdish Crude Changes Course toward Cyprus

A tanker carrying 300,000 barrels of Kurdish crude oil has changed its destination to Limassol, Cyprus, as it returned from the United States without delivering its disputed cargo to a New Jersey refiner. The Minerva Joy tanker had previously listed its destination as "Gibraltar orders," which usually implies a destination in the Eastern Mediterranean or further east. It changed its destination to "Limassol orders" at around 1600 GMT on Saturday, according to Reuters AIS Live shiptracking. On Aug. 13, the Minerva Joy began sailing eastwards from off the coast of Paulsboro, New Jersey, after refiner Axeon Specialty Products said it would not buy or accept delivery of any cargoes of disputed Kurdish crude oil for its Paulsboro refinery.

13 Aug 2014

US Refineries Cease Purchase of Kurdish Oil

U.S. refiners will refrain from buying Kurdish crude oil until a long-running dispute between Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan is settled, while Washington urges both sides to set aside their differences and helps them tackle Sunni militants. The two known U.S. buyers of Kurdish crude oil have now rejected delivery of cargoes from tankers near New Jersey and Texas, saying they will not make further purchases until it is determined who has the right to sell the oil: the central government of Iraq or the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). U.S. refiner Axeon Specialty Products was the latest company to turn away a cargo of Kurdish crude oil on Monday. It balked after Baghdad filed a lawsuit over a cargo slated for another U.S. refiner, LyondellBasell NV.

11 Aug 2014

Axeon: No Additional Kurdish Crude Buys

U.S. refiner Axeon Specialty Products said it won't buy or accept delivery of any cargoes of disputed Kurdish Shaikan crude oil for its Paulsboro, New Jersey refinery, according to a press release received on Monday. Several cargoes of the oil have recently reached U.S. soil and Iraq's central government has moved to block independent exports of crude by the Kurdistan Regional Government. Earlier this month, refiner LyondellBasell, confirmed it recently purchased "modest quantities" of what public records show is Kurdish Shaikan crude and said it would scrap further purchases of the disputed oil for the time being.   Reporting By Terry Wade

04 Aug 2014

Kurds Ask US Court to Scrap Seizure Order, Allow Crude Delivery

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq asked a U.S. court on Monday to throw out an order to seize some 1 million barrels of disputed crude oil and allow the cargo to be freely delivered in Texas. The United Kalavrvta tanker, carrying about $100 million worth of Kurdish crude, has been anchored near Texas for nine days, as the Iraqi region of Kurdistan wages a legal battle over ownership with the central government of Iraq. At the request of Baghdad, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas ordered the U.S. Marshals Service to take control of the cargo last week, but then said the tanker was outside its jurisdiction and beyond U.S. territory in the Gulf of Mexico.

01 Aug 2014

Kurdish Crude Oil Tankships: End-Game Still in Doubt

After a legal show-down in Texas this week, the outlook for a handful of tankers holding some $300 million worth of Kurdish oil is not looking good. Seemingly unable to find enough buyers willing to take a risk on million-barrel cargoes of disputed crude, the Kurdish authorities are paying over $75,000 a day to keep all three far-flung vessels afloat. A fourth ship began filling up at a terminal on the Turkish coast on Thursday, potentially adding to the tally, Reuters reported. Unless they can seal last-minute discreet sales or reach some kind of deal with Baghdad over how to share oil revenues, experts say, chances are slim of unloading ships now dotted around the globe, from Texas to Malaysia. In total, they have already been at sea for nearly half a year.

18 May 2009

ConocoPhillips Senior Management Changes

ConocoPhillips [NYSE:COP] announced that Jim Gallogly, executive vice president, Exploration & Production, has elected to retire from the company to become the Chief Executive Officer of LyondellBasell, with the following senior management changes effective immediately. Ryan M. Lance, currently president, Exploration & Production – Asia, Africa, Middle East and Russia/Caspian, will become senior vice president, Exploration & Production – International. Kevin O. Meyers, currently president, Canada, Exploration & Production, will become senior vice president, Exploration & Production – Americas. Kevin J. Mitchell, currently general manager…