Anglo-Dutch oil group Royal Dutch Shell has announced plans to make its jointly owned Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, the biggest in the United States.
Shell founded the Motiva refiniery in 1998 with Saudi Refining and is considering increasing the output at the facility by 325,000 barrels per day.
"The project would make the Port Arthur Refinery the largest in the country," Shell said in a statement on Friday.
Output would rise to 610,000 barrels per day, higher than the 557,000 barrels per day produced by the ExxonMobil facility in Baytown, Texas, the current biggest in the country.
"Pending necessary regulatory approvals, Motiva would expect to initiate final engineering later in 2006 and begin construction in 2007," said Shell, while underlining that a final decision to expand the facility had not been taken.
"The new capacity would be projected to come online in 2010."
A shortage of refining capacity worldwide has been identified as one of the reasons behind the recent surge in crude oil prices. Oil companies have been accused of failing to invest adequately in new facilities.
