The Phillips 66 Lake Charles refinery, located in Louisiana, US has been operational since 1941. Owned and operated by Phillips 66, the refinery facility is capable of processing 249,000 barrels of crude oil a day.
The refinery can process various types of crude oil including sweet, medium sour, heavy sour, and high-acidic crude oil, and its Nelson Complexity Factor is 9.5.
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The Phillips 66 Lake Charles refinery produces up to 105,000 barrels of gasoline and 115,000 barrels of distillates a day.
The operations at the refinery were suspended due to Hurricane Laura and Hurricane Delta from August to October 2020. The refinery was shut down on 25 August 2020 before Hurricane Laura’s arrival and it resumed operations on 15 October 2020.
Location and site details
The Phillips 66 Lake Charles refinery complex is located in Westlake, southwest Louisiana, US, approximately 242km east of Houston, Texas.
The refinery site is spread over approximately 690 acres on the banks of the Calcasieu River.
Processing facilities at Phillips 66 Lake Charles refinery
The various processing facilities in the refinery include crude distillation, naphtha reforming, a fluid catalytic cracker, alkylation, delayed coking, hydrocracking, a specialty coker and calciner, and hydrodesulphurisation units.
The construction of an isomerisation unit of 25,000 barrels per day (bpd) capacity was completed by the Phillips 66 partners in July 2019. The unit started operations later in 2019 which enabled the increase in the production of higher-octane petrol blend components.
A coker feed flexibility project is also currently under development at the refinery.
Products pipeline
Separately, the construction of the Lake Charles products pipeline from Lake Charles to Clifton Ridge Marine terminal was completed in the second quarter of 2019. The pipeline increased the refinery’s product export capacity by up to 50,000bpd.
Refinery products
The Phillips 66 Lake Charles refinery produces transportation fuels including petrol, diesel, and aviation fuel. The other products include asphalt, fuel-grade petroleum coke, as well as graphite petroleum coke for the steel industry. The major proportion of the refinery products are distributed to customers in the south-eastern and eastern US.
Supporting infrastructure
The refinery receives feedstock from the US Gulf Coast as well as from foreign countries. It receives crude oil from various pipelines and terminals including the Bayou Bridge pipeline, and the Beaumont and the Clifton Ridge terminals.
The Beaumont terminal, in Nederland, Texas, was acquired by Phillips 66 in 2014. Clifton Ridge terminal, owned by Phillips 66, is located in Sulphur, Louisiana.
The Lake Charles refinery receives crude oil from the Beaumont terminal through the Bayou Bridge pipeline. Phillips 66 Partners holds a 40% stake in the Bayou Bridge pipeline which supplies crude oil from Nederland to St. James, Louisiana. The capacity of the pipeline is approximately 480,000bpd.
Excel Paralubes
The refinery is the primary supplier of feedstock for the nearby Excel Paralubes’ hydrocracked lubricant base oil manufacturing plant with an installed capacity of 22,200bpd of clear hydrocracked base oils.
Excel Paralubes is a joint-venture between Phillips 66 (50%) and Flint Hills Resources (50%). The base oil produced by Excel Paralubes is marketed under the Pure Performance brand.
