By Marathon Petroleum Corp’s 625,000 b/d Galveston Bay refinery in Texas is set to restart in mid-November following repair work after a fatal fire occurred in May, according to Chief Financial Officer Maryann Mannen.
Repair progress has been on track for the Galveston Bay refinery, with plans to begin operations in mid-November. Mannen stated during the third-quarter earnings conference call that production will gradually increase over the next few weeks. The company aims to reach full operating rates by mid-December after advanced turnaround activity.
Marathon, the largest U.S. refinery operator, experienced unplanned downtime during Q3, resulting in an estimated 4.7 million bbl of lost crude throughput at Galveston Bay, out of which 2.1 million bbl were from its Garyville refinery.
Following the fire in mid-May, Marathon initiated repair construction work on the refinery’s reformer about three months later. The company also decided to pull forward turnaround work into the third and fourth quarters, originally scheduled for the first quarter of 2024.
For Q4, Mannen forecasts a company-wide crude throughput of 2.6 million b/d and a utilization rate of 90%. However, this would be lower than the Q3 level due to the higher impact of turnaround activities on crude units during the third quarter.
The fire on May 15 occurred at Galveston Bay refinery’s “Ultraformer Unit No. 3,” resulting in one worker’s fatality and two injuries. The reformer affected by the fire upgrades heavy naphtha into gasoline blendstock by increasing its octane.
Marathon, based in Findlay, Ohio, operates 13 U.S. oil refineries with a combined throughput of 2.9 million b/d. The company also owns retail and midstream assets, along with renewable fuel production plants.
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