Sources familiar with plant operations said that the discovery of two coronavirus cases in Motiva Enterprises Port Arthur, Texas, refinery would not affect the maintenance works of a crude unit and hydrocracker.
Two hourly Motiva employees went into quarantine after being tested positive. The areas where they worked on the VPS-2 crude distillation unit (CDU) and hydrocracker of the refinery had already undergone deep cleaning.
Motiva declined to comment about the maintenance or the infections at the refinery. The company only stated that it has responded to potential and confirmed cases in compliance with the Centers for Disease Control and local health authorities.
The company also conducted contact tracing of the people with suspected or confirmed cases within the refinery and urged those people to go on quarantine.
The 80,000 bpd VPS-2 CDU overhaul started on June 15, scheduled for five weeks. The 105,000 bpd hydrocracker started to shut one of its production trains on June 18, and the work is estimated to last for a month.
Texas is the US state with the third-highest number of coronavirus cases.
