Royal Dutch Shell Plc is weighing the sale of its Convent, Louisiana, refinery, located 58 miles (93 km) west of New Orleans. On Tuesday, Robin Mooldijk, Shell’s executive vice president of manufacturing, told employees about the possible sale of the refinery. The possible sale was part of the company’s plan announced in 2019 to structure its operations to match the future market for downstream products.
Shell took sole ownership of the refinery on May 1, 2017, when Motiva Enterprises became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Saudi Aramco. Motiva had been a joint-venture between the two companies for 15 years. Shell also plans to sell its associated co-located logistics infrastructure - the products truck terminal, marine docks, Sorrento, Louisiana, salt cavern LPG storage, and line history rights for Bengal Pipeline.
In February, Shell sold its 156,400 bpd Martinez, California, refinery and logistics assets to PBF Energy for $960 million plus the price for oil and refined products on hand. US refinery utilization fell to 68 percent of 19 million bpd in April because of reduced travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilization rose to 75.5 percent by the last week of June.
