LyondellBasell's Houston refinery is a large, high conversion refinery located on the Houston Ship ChannelHouston Ship Channel in Houston, Texas in the US.
The refinery is 100% owned and operated by LyondellBasell.
The refinery primarily processes imported heavy high-sulfur crude oil.
Lyondell plans to stop refining operations at the site in 2025
Complexity: 12.1
Atmospheric distillation - 289 kbpd - Multiple units: Unit 536 (120kbpd), Unit 537 heavy crude unit (147 kbpd)
Vacuum distillation - 197 kbpd
Coker - 101 kbpd - Multiple units: unit 737 (57 kbpd), 736 (42 kbpd)
FCC - 110 kbpd
Alkylation - 11 kbpd - Sulfuric acid
Naphtha hydrotreater - 61 kbpd
Kerosene hydrotreater - 45 kbpd - Unifiner
Distillate hydrotreater - 93 kbpd - SynSat technology (ULSD)
VGO hydrotreater - 117 kbpd - Multiple units: Unit 634 (49 kbpd)
FCC gasoline hydrotreater - 89 kbpd - UOP technology, Tier III 10ppm
Aromatics extraction - 21 kbpd
Pet coke - 30 kbpd
Sulfur plant - 1123 t/d - Unit 434 Claus
Land - 700 acres
Employees - 1200 (including contractors)
1918 - Built by Sinclair
1969 - Sinclair acquired by ARCO
1989 - ARCO spins of 50% ownership as Lyondell Chemical
1993 - Placed in JV between Lyondell and Citgo (PDVSA)
1997 - ARCO divests interest in Lyondell
1997 - Major expansion completed with new crude unit and coker
2004 - FCC gasoline hydrotreater added
2006 - Lyondell acquires full ownership
2007 - Lyondell merges with Basell to form LyondellBasell
2008 - SR reformer shutdown
2020 - Baseoil plant shut down
2021 - Lyondell announces it plans to shut down the refinery
2025 - Lyondell plans to stop refinery operations by the end of 2025, and possibly convert to treating of recylced plastics based pyrolysis oil leveraging the existing hydrotreaters