ExxonMobil seeks limited Torrance restart

OREANDA-NEWS. August 14, 2015. ExxonMobil is seeking regulatory approval to run equipment at its crippled southern California refinery at reduced rates this fall, helping to restore supply to a tumultuous southwestern fuel market.

The company will early next month seek approval to run at roughly two-thirds capacity an idled fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCC) involved in a February explosion by using older pollution control equipment at its 155,000 b/d refinery in Torrance, California, according to an application made to South Coast Air Quality Management District hearing board.

ExxonMobil would operate the FCC at 65,000 b/d and shut other non-process unit equipment to offset the less efficient emissions equipment, under the terms of the application.

The board will next meet 2 September. Restart approval from the Department of Industrial Relations, which is also required, could come after another two to three days following board approval.

The application was completed yesterday, just ahead of the completion of a Cal-OSHA investigation into the cause of a 18 February explosion that slashed gasoline production at the largest single southern California source of the fuel and roiled southwestern gasoline markets.

Prices for the boutique gasoline California uses have rocketed higher in the six months since the explosion, reaching as much as a \\$1.20/USG premium to the US benchmark RBOB. Increased prices have rippled through the southwest, raising retail gasoline costs in Arizona and Nevada markets that follow Los Angeles.

Operators told the agency that equipment used to monitor pressure in the FCC had not worked properly for nearly a decade ahead of the accident, said Clyde Trombettas, statewide manager and policy advisor for process safety management at the state Department of Industrial Relations.

The company had swiftly addressed mechanical issues uncovered during the investigation of the explosion and was also working to complete training and procedural changes the department would require before authorizing any restart, he said.

"I would anticipate them calling us in when they're ready, I would hope sometime shortly after they get their permit from South Coast," Trombettas said.

Neither ExxonMobil or regulators have suggested when Torrance, which supplies an estimated 15pc to 20pc of southern California gasoline demand when operating at full capacity, will return to normal operations.

A safety review in 2007 found flammable vapor leakage in associated pollution control equipment called an electrostatic precipitator (ESP), which was heavily damaged in the 2015 explosion, the agency said. And emergency crew was aware of a leaking valve on the FCC before the 18 February accident, the agency said.

Cal/OSHA issued 19 citations today and proposed \\$566,600 in penalties.

ExxonMobil said it would not "speculate on what agency investigations will conclude" and was "reviewing the citations to determine the appropriate administrative and legal next steps."

ExxonMobil declined to comment on the allegation that the FCC had malfunctioned for nine years.

Most of the citations relate to the botched emergency shutdown of the FCC on 18 February. Crews tried to shut the unit to repair a leak in an associated heat exchanger. But a combination of process problems and mechanical failure allowed hydrocarbons to move through the FCC into an ignition source in the ESP, triggering the explosion, according to the citations.

The department was working on regulations that would require refineries also review their safety culture, Trombettas said.

"It is a culture issue, and it isn't just isolated to Exxon," Trombettas said. "It is something I feel pretty strongly needs to be addressed."