Port Arthur

Motiva Enterprises LLC, with a split ownership between Shell Oil Products and Saudi Aramco Refining, owns the Motiva Port Arthur refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. The refinery that produces lubricant oils for Shell Lubricants sits on 3,600 acres and is capable of producing more than 250,000 barrels per day.

Products

In addition to regular and premium unleaded gasoline, the refinery produces low-sulfur gasoline, jet fuel for commercial aviation use, diesel and heating oil.

The #6 oil that the refinery produces is used for locomotives as well as for tanker fuel and for power generation. The chemical feedstocks include butane, ethane and propane as well as gas oils, naptha and reformats. Lubricant oil is sold to consumers as well as Shell Lubricants, and the Port Arthur refinery is the largest in production for this arena in the United States.

Lucas Gusher

The Port Arthur refinery started out as Texaco as a result of the Lucas gusher. The Lucas gusher of 1901 affected the entire nation, both in the oil industry and communities alike. Some oil companies shut down and moved to Beaumont, where the gusher occurred, while the properties in and around Beaumont skyrocketed. Six hundred companies quickly became incorporated to try and reap the benefit of the oil boom, but only two survived and became major: Chevron, which was then known as Gulf Refining Co., and Texaco.

Today's economy has slowed down construction for the new expansion currently underway at the Port Arthur Refinery. However, the project has been restructured with a new schedule and is continuing forward, with an expected launch date sometime during the first quarter of 2012. In addition to adding a capacity of 325,000 barrels per day to the refinery's ability, the new expansion includes reduced emissions on a per-barrel basis.

Asbestos and Motiva Port Arthur refinery

In situations where extreme heat or flame was a danger, the mineral called asbestos was the insulator preferred by builders in most of the 1900s. As a result, it was typical for facilities like Motiva Port Arthur refinery to be made with materials that contained asbestos. A lesser-known property of certain kinds of asbestos is their resistance to reactive chemicals. Because of this, asbestos was used in counter tops, lab equipment and safety garments. And although the asbestos did well in safeguarding against fire damage and in protecting life and property from extreme heat, it also exposed people who used it or worked around it to significant health risks.

Generally, amosite was the type of asbestos used. Often referred to as "brown asbestos", the amphibole form of asbestos known as amosite is particularly resistant to acidic chemicals like those used in plants like Motiva Port Arthur refinery because of the iron in its chemical composition. This amosite, in the form of asbestos transite, appeared in labs, chemical plants and refineries across the United States for many years before it was banned as a construction material in the 1970s.

Asbestos transite could be molded into working surfaces and laminated just as cement could. As long as asbestos transite remained solid, this form of asbestos offered little danger. Microscopic fibers of asbestos enter into the atmosphere, however, as transite with asbestos containing material (ACM) grows older and becomes prone to becoming powdery. In this state, it is said to be friable, which is defined as easy to pulverize. Laboratory kilns also almost always were constructed with friable asbestos in insulation linings.

The Problem with Friable Asbestos

Friable asbestos is hazardous since in this state the fibers can be easily released in the environment. Breathing asbestos fibers can cause diseases such as asbestosis. Another rare, and often fatal, asbestos-related disease is a type of cancer called mesothelioma. The pleural form of the disease, one which affects the lining between the lungs and the pleural cavity, is the most common. Ingestion of asbestos fibers, as happens if the microscopic fibers are released into the air and settle on food or in drinks, can result in pericardial or peritoneal mesothelioma.

During the last twenty years scientists and researchers have uncovered much information concerning the risks that accompany asbestos exposure; as a result there are stringent rules controlling its use. However, when facilities such as Motiva Port Arthur refinery were first operating, asbestos was more commonplace. And in all too many cases people worked with materials containing asbestos without the benefit of respirators or other protective gear.

The Lurking Danger of Asbestos

Asbestos-related diseases, unlike typical job-related injuries, which are easily observed and known about soon after the causing incident, may take many, many years to appear. When a former worker begins developing signs such as pain in the chest or abdomen, shortness of breath (also known as dyspnea) and chronic coughing, his or her physician might not at first recognize asbestos as the culprit, leading to delays in diagnosis and treatment. Hence, it is extremely important for those who worked at or resided around places like Motiva Port Arthur refinery to ask their doctors for a mesothelioma treatment guide. Moreover, family members and others who shared homes with these people are also at risk, as unless strict decontamination policies, including the use of on-site uniforms and showers, were followed, it was all too easy for people to bring particles of asbestos on themselves or their clothes. While currently, no mesothelioma cure exists, the disease can sometimes be treated.

Sources

Motiva Enterprises LLC - Port Arthur Refinery Expansion Continues
http://www.portarthurrefinery.com/go/doc/96/271428/

Motiva Enterprises LLC - News and Info, About Us
http://www.portarthurrefinery.com/go/doc/96/58610/

W. T. Block, Jr. - Lucas gusher fever affected so many folks, far and wide
http://www.wtblock.com/WtblockJr/lucus_gusher.htm

University of Wisconsin - Asbestos Containing Material (ACM) - Laboratories and Shops
http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/EHSRM/ASB/acmimages3.html

University of Wisconsin - Asbestos Disposal
http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/EHSRM/HAZEXCEPTIONS/a.html