Houston-area oil refineries unaffected by flooding after heavy rains

[August 09, 2017]    HOUSTON (Reuters) - Houston-area oil refineries were unaffected by heavy rains that caused flooding across wide areas of the city Monday night and Tuesday morning, the companies and industry sources said on Tuesday.

Rainfall totals over 7 inches (17.8 cms ) were recorded by the Harris County Flood Warning System in the past 24 hours. Houston police reported 24 rescues from high water by Tuesday evening.

Exxon Mobil Corp's <XOM.N> Baytown, Texas, refinery; Royal Dutch Shell Plc's <RDSa.L> joint-venture Deer Park, Texas, refinery, LyondellBasell Industries' <LYB.N> Houston refinery and Phillips 66's <PSX.N> Sweeny, Texas, refinery were operating normally as of Tuesday afternoon, company representatives said.

Sources said Marathon Petroleum Corp's <MPC.N> Galveston Bay and Texas City refineries in Texas City, Texas, were operating normally.

A spokesman for Marathon declined to discuss operations at the company's refineries in Texas City, as did a Valero Energy Corp <VLO.N> spokeswoman asked about the company's Houston and Texas City refineries.

A Petrobras <PETR4.SA> spokeswoman did not reply to a message about the company's Pasadena, Texas, refinery.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by G Crosse and Joseph Radford)

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