Motiva Enterprises LLC has reported chemical spills at the company's Delaware City refinery, on May 4, 2003. A new report on the acid spill has more than tripled earlier estimates of the pollution release. The Delaware City refinery, which processes about 175,000 barrels of oil daily, is a downstream joint venture of Royal Dutch Shell Company, Texaco Inc. and Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The company estimates that more than 25,000 gallons of sulfuric acid and other chemicals might have been ejected. Although investigators have not yet released a cause it is thought that over-pressurization of a sulfuric acid storage tank has caused the release of several thousand gallons of sulfuric acid and hydrocarbons.
Motiva has reported releases of hazardous substances on 82 other occasions since June 17, 2001, including releases of acetaldehyde, ammonia, benzene, carbonyl sulfide, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide and hydrogen sulfide.
One of these cases, a July 17, 2001 a fire and explosion at another sulfuric acid tank, resulted in the death of one worker and injured eight others. Since 2000, environmental and other federal and state agencies have taken legal actions to address environmental and public health issues at Motiva's Delaware City refinery.
Motiva operates petroleum, refining and marketing businesses in 26 Eastern and Gulf Coast States. Shell has 35 percent ownership and Texaco and Saudi Refining, Inc., a corporate affiliate of Saudi Aramco, each have 32.5 percent ownership of the company. Motiva Enterprises LLC, headquartered in Houston, markets under the Texaco and Shell brands. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
