Fluor progresses on project at Marathon’s Galveston Bay refinery

Robert Brelsford

Downstream Technology Editor

Marathon Petroleum Corp. has reached substantial engineering completion for the Tier 3 gasoline sulfur standard reconfiguration project at Marathon Petroleum Corp.’s 571,000-b/d Galveston Bay refinery in Texas City, Tex. (OGJ Online, Apr. 13, 2017).

Working with Marathon since the feasibility stage in 2014, Fluor is providing engineering, procurement, and construction management services on the project that, once completed, will enable the refinery to achieve updated US Environmental Protection Agency Tier 3 gasoline sulfur standards by 2020 and provide cleaner fuel to US markets, Fluor said.

Fluor’s scope of work includes EPCM services for a selective hydrogenation unit, a naphtha desulfurization unit, and upgrades to the existing naphtha desulfurization unit as well as the fluid catalytic cracker.

The Tier 3 project also includes the modernization of the utilities and offsites to continue the integration of the former Texas City refinery into the adjacent Galveston Bay refinery.

Fluor performed engineering on the project out of its offices in Houston, and Manila and Cebu, Philippines, the service provider said.

Construction activity remains under way at the project site, with installation of aboveground piping and structural steel now taking place.

Construction on the Tier 3 project is scheduled to be completed in 2019, Fluor said.

Fluor also is currently delivering engineering and procurement services for Marathon’s South Texas Asset Repositioning (STAR) program at the Galveston Bay refinery, which aims to further integrate Marathon’s former Texas City refinery into the adjacent Galveston Bay refinery—now the second largest refinery in the US—to improve the facility’s efficiency and reliability by increasing the residual oil processing capabilities, upgrading the crude unit, and integrating facility logistics (OGJ Online, Apr. 20, 2018).

Once completed, the STAR program will in result in a fully integrated Galveston Bay-Texas City refining complex (the Galveston Bay refinery) equipped with the following capacities: crude distillation, 585,000 b/d; resid processing, 142,100 b/d; catalytic cracking-hydrocracking, 258,400 b/d; alkyation, 52,800 b/d; and aromatics, 33,800 b/d.

Previously scheduled for startup in 2021, the STAR program is now slated for full commissioning in 2022.