Saudi oil company Saudi Aramco plans to invest up to US$30bn by 2023 in Motiva, its US subsidiary that oversees the 600,000 bbl/d Port Arthur refinery in Texas and 24 distribution terminals. The group will initially invest US$12bn to expand the capacity of the Port Arthur refinery - whose capacity already doubled in 2012 - and to extend its petrochemical operations. A further US$18bn investment is expected by 2023.
In early May 2017, Saudi Aramco completed the split of its Motiva joint venture with Shell (50% each) created in 1998. The Saudi group Saudi Aramco retained the Motiva name, sole ownership of the Port Arthur refinery and 24 distribution terminals, and had an exclusive license to use the Shell brand for gasoline and diesel sales in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., as well as the eastern half of Texas and the majority of Florida. Shell assumes sole ownership of the 235,000 bbl/d Norco refinery in Louisiana (where Shell operates a chemicals plant), the 230,000 bbl/d Convent refinery in Louisiana, eleven distribution terminals, and Shell branded markets in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, a portion of the Florida panhandle, and the North-eastern region of the United States.