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HOUSTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - A severe winter storm shut a U.S. Gulf Coast refinery in Texas on Tuesday and halved North Dakota oil production as it dumped snow and rain across a broad swath of the nation.

TotalEnergies' 238,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, was examining units after a plantwide power outage on Tuesday morning as a winter storm brought frigid temperatures to the U.S. Gulf Coast, sources familiar with the company's operations said.

North Dakota's oil production fell by half on Tuesday due to extreme cold weather and operational challenges, the state's pipeline authority said.

Oil production was estimated to have fallen by 600,000 to 650,000 barrels per day, according to the North Dakota Pipeline Authority.

Flint Hills Resources said its 343,000-bpd refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, was significantly impacted by unseasonably cold weather, especially at its West Plant where instrumentation to operate equipment was affected by freezing rain overnight.

The Koch Industries subsidiary is performing planned maintenance at the refinery's East Plant.

Valero Energy Corp VLO.N began a planned overhaul on the large crude distillation unit (CDU) at its 335,000-bpd refinery in Port Arthur on Monday, people familiar with plant operations said on Tuesday.

In addition to shutting the 210,000-bpd AVU-146 CDU, Valero brought down a coker and a vacuum distillation unit (VDU) associated with AVU-146, the sources said. The work is planned to take 45 days to complete.

Units across half of Valero's Port Arthur refinery will be affected by the shutdown of AVU-146, which is the larger of two CDUs that begin the refining process by breaking down crude oil into feedstocks for all other units at the refinery.

The Valero shutdown, which was planned months ago, occurred as refineries across the U.S. Gulf Coast sought to maintain operations amid temperatures that have plummeted to unseasonable lows.

Three refineries in Port Arthur, including Motiva Enterprises' 626,000-bpd plant, the nation's largest refinery, have major units shut. The Motiva refinery began a crude unit-coker overhaul on Jan. 8.

Exxon Mobil Corp XOM.N warned on Monday of flaring from its refining and petrochemical complex in Baytown, Texas, may be possible due to the cold weather.

The company reported to state pollution regulators upsets at the Baytown Olefins Plant on Monday and the Baytown Chemical Plant on Sunday.

In a regulatory filing, Marathon Petroleum Corp MPC.N reported an upset on Monday on the 64,000-bpd residual hydrotreater at its 593,000-bpd Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas.

Delek DK.N reported a malfunction due to cold temperatures on Sunday at its 73,000-bpd refinery in Big Spring, Texas.

Valero notified regulators on Sunday after upsets at its 195,000-bpd McKee refinery in Sunray, Texas, which is north of Amarillo, Texas.

Valero told residents near its 210,000 bpd Houston refinery on Tuesday said it may have to use the plant's safety flare system to manage excess material.

Refineries use safety flares when they cannot process hydrocarbons normally.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Paul Simao and Deepa Babington)

((erwin.seba@thomsonreuters.com; +1 832 746 4269; Reuters Messaging: erwin.seba.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

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