Shell to Shut Its Convent, La. Refinery Amid Pandemic
Royal Dutch Shell said on Thursday it will shut down its refinery in Convent, Louisiana, the largest U.S. facility to close since the coronavirus pandemic first hit and devastated economic demand worldwide.The shutdown, to occur this month, comes after Shell failed to find a buyer.The refinery is the ninth in North America either to announce a shutdown or to be idled since the pandemic, which has delivered a heavy blow to fuel demand globally. The United States is the world's largest fuel consumer.Shell said it failed to find a buyer for the 211…
Axeon to Close NJ Asphalt Plant
Axeon Specialty Products plans on shutting down its 75,000 barrel-per-day asphalt refinery in Paulsboro, New Jersey, as early as this summer, according to a local politician and sources familiar with the company's plans. If completed, the shutdown marks another contraction in the shrinking refining sector along the U.S. northeast, where four of the region's 10 refineries have shut in the past decade. Axeon is owned by New York-based hedge fund Lindsay Goldberg. Neither Axeon nor Lindsay Goldberg responded to requests for comment.
U.S. Oil Refiners Look Abroad for Crude Supplies
PBF Energy Inc, one of the largest independent oil refiners in the United States, spent heavily in recent years to build the rail terminals at its Delaware City complex that it needed to take delivery of large loads of crude coming from North Dakota's Bakken oil fields. But now it is considering eliminating those deliveries altogether, and replacing them with foreign crude imports, according to two sources familiar with the situation. It has even closed its small Oklahoma City office that was only opened in 2013 and had served as a hub for the company's trading in North Dakota's oil, the sources said.
Delta's Philly Refinery at 110 pct, Margins Swell
Delta Air Lines Inc is running its Philadelphia area oil refinery at a near-record 110 percent of capacity, according to a person familiar with operations, a sign of the surprisingly strong summer profits U.S. refineries are generating. While collapsing global crude oil markets have cast a dark shadow over much of the energy industry, refiners are running flat out this summer to meet record U.S. demand for gasoline. Some have pressed beyond their theoretical limits as rivals suffered unexpected breakdowns or glitches last month.
Axeon: No Additional Kurdish Crude Buys
U.S. refiner Axeon Specialty Products said it won't buy or accept delivery of any cargoes of disputed Kurdish Shaikan crude oil for its Paulsboro, New Jersey refinery, according to a press release received on Monday. Several cargoes of the oil have recently reached U.S. soil and Iraq's central government has moved to block independent exports of crude by the Kurdistan Regional Government. Earlier this month, refiner LyondellBasell, confirmed it recently purchased "modest quantities" of what public records show is Kurdish Shaikan crude and said it would scrap further purchases of the disputed oil for the time being.
