Overview

The Motiva Refinery, located in Port Arthur, Texas, has a daily crude oil processing capacity of 600,000 barrels per day. The Port Arthur Crude Expansion Project was a $7 billion project as a joint venture between Shell and Saudi Aramco affiliates. The massive capacity makes this not just the largest oil refinery in the nation, but in all of North America. The expansion was completed on May 31st, 2012 and included a major upgrade in technology, pumps, compressors, heat exchangers, and tanks.

The Need

In Motiva’s quest for the largest refinery in North America, the infrastructure required expansive upgrades to the OSBL and Underground piping. STI Group’s expertise and extensive experience in industrial services involving fabrication made for a natural fit for the project.

The STI Group Solution

STI Group rapidly mobilized a labor force large enough to weld thousands of spools within the agreed upon expedient timeline to help reach the expansion’s completion. Handling so many moving parts requires a clear line of communication and vast experience in project management. These two competencies are core strengths of STI Group and proved to be the catalysts for a very successful project.

The Results

The large volume of piping exceeded 8,500 spools ranging in size from ½” to 60” in diameter. The welds were closely inspected to ensure pipe integrity and STI Group performed at less than 1% reject ratio maximizing efficiency through quality. With both carbon steel and alloy fabrication, this level of performance proved impressive enough to warrant more work beyond the initial contract. This included both rebuilding other contractor’s unsatisfactory work as well as earning projects that were not initially part of the expansion project’s scope.

Project details:

• STI was awarded OSBL and Underground piping – STI also did lots of the “pickup” work later in the project for items that did not get built properly the first time, or were never ordered.
• Over 8,500 spools built in sizes ranging from ½” to 60” in diameter
• STI had less than .09% rejection rate for the project
• Both Carbon Steel and Alloy Fabrication

Whether a project is large or small, managing every facet of a project is crucial to that project’s success. With this in mind, maintaining a low reject ratio on the welds means getting the job done right the first time. We track each pipe from fabrication to installation and pass rigorous inspections to guarantee the highest quality welds for the client.

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