Convent refinery

Convent was a large, high-conversion refinery located on the Mississippi River, about 30 miles Southeast of Baton Rouge, Louisiana in the US.

Convent is 100% owned and operated by Shell.  

It was previously part of a 50/50 JV between Shell and Saudi Aramco (Motiva) which was dissolved in 2017.

In 2020 Shell stopped refinery operations at the site.

Shell is considering converting parts of the plant to renewable fuel production.

Refinery configuration (at time of shutdown)

Complexity: 10.7

Major process units:

Atmospheric distillation - 260 kbpd

Vacuum distillation - 119 kbpd

FCC - 92 kbpd

Resid hydrocracker - 55 kbpd - H-oil unit

Reformer - 46 kbpd - Semiregen

Naphtha hydrotreater - 50 kbpd

Kerosene hydrotreater - 42 kbpd

Distillate hydrotreater - 76 kbpd

VGO hydrotreater - 40 kbpd

FCC gasoline hydrotreater - 58 kbpd

Alkylation - 23 kbpd

C5/C6 Isomerization - 16 kbpd

Location

3288 River Rd, Darrow, LA 70725 USA

Refinery history

1967 - Built by Texaco

1989 - Placed in Star JV between Texaco and Aramco

1998 - Shell joined JV and it is was renamed Motiva

2012 - Hydrogen plant shut down 

2017 - JV with Aramco dissolved and Convent became fully owned by Shell

2018 - FCC naphtha hydrotreater added, shut down one of two naphtha hydrotreaters

2020 - The refinery was closed after failing to find an acquirer