Refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast from Corpus Christi, Texas to Pascagoula, Mississippi are configured to run the heavy sour, corrosive crude oil produced by Venezuela that President Donald Trump plans to sell in the U.S., following the capture last weekend of Nicolas Maduro.
Beginning in the 1990s, refiners reconfigured their plants with increased coking capacity and upgraded steel to be able to process growing supply from producers of dense, high-sulfur crude, like Venezuela, Mexico and Ecuador.
Venezuela’s national oil company PDVSA purchased two U.S. refineries and partnered with Exxon Mobil and Lyondell Basell in two others.
However, in the early 21st century, with production in Latin America falling, Midwestern refineries, which had received Venezuelan crude, switched to heavy crude from Canadian oil fields. The reversal of the Capline pipeline in 2021 cut off the major supply route for Latin American crude to the Midwest.
Following are the Gulf Coast refineries that could run Venezuelan crude.
Texas
| Company | Name | Location | Capacity (BPD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Motiva | Port Arthur | Port Arthur | 640,500 |
| Marathon | Galveston Bay | Texas City | 631,000 |
| ExxonMobil | Beaumont | Beaumont | 612,000 |
| ExxonMobil | Baytown | Baytown | 564,000 |
| Valero | Port Arthur | Port Arthur | 380,000 |
| Flint Hills | Corpus Christi | Corpus Christi | 356,000 |
| Pemex* | Deer Park | Deer Park | 312,500 |
| Valero | Corpus Christi | Corpus Christi | 290,000 |
| Phillips 66 | Sweeny | Sweeny | 264,500 |
| TotalEnergies | Port Arthur | Port Arthur | 238,000 |
| Valero | Texas City | Texas City | 225,000 |
| Citgo | Corpus Christi | Corpus Christi | 165,000 |
* Pemex Deer Park is owned by Mexico’s national oil company and primarily processes Mexican crude.
Source: U.S. EIA
Louisiana
| Company | Name | Location | Capacity (BPD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marathon | Garyville | Garyville | 606,000 |
| ExxonMobil | Baton Rouge | Baton Rouge | 522,500 |
| Citgo | Lake Charles | Sulphur | 459,800 |
| Phillips 66 | Lake Charles | Westlake | 263,700 |
| Shell | Norco | Norco | 231,827 |
| Valero | St. Charles | Norco | 215,000 |
| PBF Energy | Chalmette | Chalmette | 190,000 |
| Valero | Meraux | Meraux | 125,000 |
Source: U.S. EIA
Mississippi
| Company | Name | Location | Capacity (BPD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chevron | Pascagoula | Pascagoula | 356,400 |
Source: U.S. EIA
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Sonali Paul)