Royal Dutch Shell may initiate the permanent shutdown of its 211,146-bpd refinery in Convent, Louisiana, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with plant operations. The closure was announced on November 5 after Shell failed to find a buyer amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Convent refinery will be the first facility in the US Gulf Coast to close since the beginning of the pandemic.
Previously, Calcasieu Refining shut its 135,500-bpd refinery in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Meanwhile, Marathon Petroleum Corp has said it would not resume crude processing at its two plants in Martinez, California, and Gallup, New Mexico. Eight refineries in North America have been offline or targeted for shutdowns. Convent closure will add to nearly 2 million bpd of global refining capacity that has been permanently put offline due to the pandemic.
Shell is planning to divest eight of its fourteen refining facilities until 2025, but the company would permanently shut them if it failed to find a buyer. 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. Shell intends to keep its Singaporean facility in Pulau Bukom, but it would scale down operations and cut jobs there.
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. Shell executives also said that the company would focus more on the production of biofuels, synthetic fuels, and hydrogen.
