Shell on Thursday said it was permanently shutting down its Convent refinery in Louisiana as the coronavirus pandemic hurts worldwide fuel demand. The 211,000 bpd refinery will be the first facility in the US Gulf Coast to close since the beginning of the pandemic. In July, the Anglo-Dutch company announced plans to sell Convent refinery but failed to find a buyer. The closure will occur this month and add to nearly 2 million bpd of global refining capacity that has been permanently put offline due to the pandemic.
In February, PBF energy purchased Shell’s 156,400 bpd refinery in Martinez, California for $960 million. Shell is planning to divest eight of its fourteen refining facilities until 2025. The six complexes that Shell intends to keep include the Norco site near New Orleans, the Deer Park site in Texas as well as facilities in Singapore, Germany, Canada, and the Netherlands. Other Shell’s refineries which are on the list for potential sale or closure include a site in Mobile, Alabama; a refinery in Puget Sound, Washington; as well as facilities in Denmark and Canada.
