Shell Reports Tank Roof Problems at Deer Park, Texas, Facility
August 28 2017 - 6:56PM
Dow Jones News
Royal Dutch Shell PLC said Monday its Deer Park refinery and
chemical facility in the Houston area is having problems with a
storage tank roof because of heavy rainfall from Hurricane
Harvey.
"It was discovered that the external floating roof of Tank G346
had material on top of the roof and in the dike area," the refinery
said in a statement to the Texas Commission on Environmental
Quality. "Roof is sinking due to Hurricane Harvey dumping heavy and
large amounts of rainfall in short period of time."
Shell said the discovery was made Monday morning and that it
placed foam on the material to lower emissions, and transferred the
material to another tank.
Damage to floating roofs is becoming a common theme for refiners
in the rain-drenched Houston area. Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) reported
an almost identical problem at its Baytown refinery Monday. Fuel
and storage tanks often comprise an open-topped cylindrical steel
shell equipped with an external roof that floated on the top of the
liquid being stored.
Both refineries have been shut since the weekend, as Shell and
Exxon witnessed the deluge of rain and decided it was more prudent
to shut them down in an orderly fashion as opposed to being forced
to do an emergency shutdown if there was a power outage, flooding
or other problems.
Shell Deer Park is along the Houston Ship Channel, 20 miles east
of downtown Houston.
Write to Dan Molinski at dan.molinski@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 28, 2017 18:41 ET (22:41 GMT)
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