Motiva Port Arthur Refinery

Motiva Enterprises LLC · Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) · Port Arthur, TX

Operating PADD3 jet fuel lubes low emissions diesel

Aerial view of the site Imagery: USDA, USGS The National Map (public domain)

bpd crude capacity · EIA 2026: 656,400
pipelines it injects into: 4
delivery points reachable: 58
terminals on those points: 111
events on record: 3

Capability

Crude distillation 656,400 bpd operable, 656,400 operating (EIA-820, as of 2026-01-01). Downstream units below, barrels per calendar day.

Conversion — makes gasoline and diesel from heavier oil

Catalytic cracking (FCC)	89,700
Hydrocracking — gas oil	107,300
Delayed coking	158,000

Upgrading

Catalytic reforming — low pressure	121,825
Vacuum distillation	336,600 sd

Treating — meets sulfur specs

Hydrotreating — diesel	189,800 sd
Hydrotreating — kerosene & jet	79,000 sd
Hydrotreating — gasoline	55,000 sd
Hydrotreating — naphtha / reformer feed	186,500 sd
Hydrotreating — heavy gas oil	65,000 sd

Production capacity

Alkylates · 23,000 Isomerization isopentane isohexane · 58,500 Lubricants · 39,000 Petcoke market · 50,975 Sulfur short tons day · 3,203

Crude slate

Not independently confirmed; Motiva's scale and coking/hydrocracking capacity are generally understood to run a heavy-sour-capable slate blended with lighter domestic barrels, but no source-specific breakdown was found within budget.

Crude in & products out

Direction	Mode	Route	Point / origin	Products	Source
crude in	pipeline	Keystone Pipeline (via Port Neches Link) The Port Neches Link Pipeline (in service March 2023, 4 mi/36in) was purpose-built for last-mile connectivity from Keystone/Marketlink's Nederland Delivery Station to Motiva's Port Neches terminal feeding the Port Arthur refinery.	South Bow Keystone Nederland Delivery Station	crude	source
crude in	pipeline	Nederland Terminal dedicated crude line RBN Energy describes a dedicated 30-inch crude pipeline from the Nederland terminal to the 600 Mb/d Motiva Port Arthur refinery.	Nederland Terminal (Sunoco/Energy Transfer), Sabine-Neches waterway	crude	source
crude in	marine	Sabine-Neches Waterway Deepwater channel access shared by the Beaumont/Port Arthur refining complex.	Waterborne imports / domestic marine	crude	source
crude in	pipeline	Enterprise ECHO Terminal (crude) RBN describes ECHO as connecting to refiners in Houston, Pasadena, Texas City AND Beaumont/Port Arthur; the graph's 'products_pipeline' typing for this edge again looks like a type mismatch since ECHO handles crude.	Enterprise Crude Houston terminal / Seaway system	crude	source
products out	pipeline	Colonial Pipeline Colonial documents receiving product from Beaumont/Port Arthur refineries generally.	Hebert (Beaumont/Port Arthur origin complex)	gasoline distillate jet fuel	source
products out	pipeline	Explorer Pipeline Explorer's Port Arthur origin historically served the Beaumont/Port Arthur refineries generally; Explorer's own connected-refinery list found in this research names Premcor (Port Arthur), ExxonMobil (Beaumont) and Valero (Texas City) explicitly but did not separately name Motiva -- plausible but not independently confirmed for Motiva specifically.	Port Arthur	gasoline distillate jet fuel	source
products out	pipeline	TEPPCO / Enterprise TE Products Pipeline Regional TE Products network serves Beaumont/Port Arthur refineries; a Motiva-specific citation was not found within budget.	Port Arthur area	gasoline distillate	inferred
products out	truck rack	Motiva Refinery rack Refinery-direct truck rack is expected for a facility of this scale (275,000 bpd of branded fuel and 40,000 bpd of base oil produced daily per trade press).	Refinery site	gasoline distillate	source

Pipeline reach

Pipeline	Injects at	Delivery points	Terminals	Lowest ¢/bbl	Median ¢/bbl
Explorer Pipeline	Port Arthur (Jefferson County, TX) same city	31	31	96.30	334.80
Enterprise / TEPPCO	North Port Arthur (Jefferson Co., TX) - interconnect with Enterprise Refined Products storage same city	15	58	204.70	351.08
Magellan Midstream	Port Arthur / Port Neches, TX (via Explorer) same city	9	19	603.88	686.75
Colonial Pipeline	Port Arthur Products Station same city Port Arthur Products Station / Total tie-in Port Neches (FERC 3.33.0) same city	3	3	20.13	26.39

Substitutes

Other refineries injecting into the same pipelines — the supply that could backfill an outage here.

Events

2025-07 fire
Fire broke out in a heavy oil conversion unit near the plant's center; ~1,400 people were on site, all accounted for with no injuries; possibly lightning-related; other units remained operational. source
2025-02 expansion
Trade press reported Motiva had quietly expanded Port Arthur to 640,500-654,000 bpd, making it the largest single US/North American refinery. source
2024-04 outage
Severe thunderstorms (with a tornado) caused a power outage that shut nine units, including two crude distillation units, which Motiva restarted overnight. source

Rates are pipeline line-haul transcribed from published FERC tariffs; every figure cites its tariff and item. Cost to serve (netback) adds origin spot price and destination fees. "Confirmed" links match a tariff delivery point to the facility; "same city" means the point is in the facility's city — plausible, not proof; "per research" means the facility's research profile names the pipeline as an outlet.