Motiva Enterprises LLC (Motiva) announced plans to integrate the company’s two Louisiana refineries – Norco and Convent – creating the Louisiana Refining System. This multi-phased project creates significant operational opportunities including increasing access to advantaged light oil, optimizing inter-plant intermediates and conversion units, increasing distillates yield and reducing operating costs.

"Through the implementation of these projects, we are creating a world-scale, integrated refining system that leverages the best aspects of our two Louisiana refineries in Convent and Norco," said Dan Romasko, President and CEO of Motiva. "At 620,000 barrels per day, our Port Arthur refinery is already the largest refinery in North America and benefits from this scale and efficiency. With an integrated crude capacity over 500,000 barrels per day, our Louisiana Refining System will rank in the top five of North American refineries in capacity and deliver significant value to Motiva’s portfolio."

The Maurepas pipeline system is the first step in the Louisiana integration project. This system is comprised of three pipelines that will be built, owned and operated by affiliates of SemGroup Corporation, a publicly traded midstream service company.

The Maurepas crude pipeline will connect the existing LOCAP terminal in St. James, Louisiana to the Norco refinery via a 34-mile pipeline, greatly improving access to advantaged domestic crude oil. The Maurepas 35-mile and the 34-mile intermediates pipelines will directly connect the Norco and Convent refineries supporting optimization of both plants’ conversion units while improving logistics efficiency, alleviating dock congestion and allowing additional product exports.

“The Louisiana integration strategy is an exciting opportunity for Motiva to unlock significant value for our owners,” said Romasko. "This project is well aligned with our strategic priorities and represents a performance step change supporting our transformation journey.”

When the pipelines are complete, Motiva plans to idle the Fluid Catalytic Cracker (FCC) at its Convent refinery. Additionally, the company intends to reconfigure the existing hydrocracker unit at its Norco refinery to process 30,000 barrels per day of additional gas oil into high quality diesel. On a combined basis, the Louisiana Refining System is expected to drive incremental annual benefits of $350 million of EBITDA.

About Motiva Enterprises LLC

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Motiva Enterprises LLC refines, distributes and markets petroleum products. With three refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast region, Motiva has a combined capacity of more than 1.1 million barrels per day. The company’s marketing operations support a network of approximately 8,300 Shell-branded gasoline stations in the eastern and southern United States. Motiva is owned equally by affiliates of Saudi Aramco and Shell Oil Company.

See the site of the Norco refinery
See the site of the Convent refinery