Marathon Galveston Bay Refinery Reports Major Flaring

DAVENPORT, FL (DTN)–Marathon Petroleum Corporation, through Blanchard Refining Company LLC, reported a major emissions and flaring event at its 631,000 bpd Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, according to a filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The refinery is the largest in the United States and primarily produces gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel.

The flaring at Blanchard began Tuesday (5/6) at 1:30 a.m. and ended at 3:00 p.m. CT, lasting approximately 13 hours and 30 minutes.

According to the filing, a power interruption caused the East and West sulfur recovery unit trains to go offline, forcing the refinery to route vent streams to multiple flares under its sulfur shed plan. The filing reported sulfur dioxide emissions across multiple refinery units and flare systems, including about 22,452 pounds from Torch 8.

Based on the filing, refinery personnel restored the sulfur recovery units and operations were returning to normal conditions.

Marathon Petroleum was contacted for additional details on the incident but did not respond by publication time.