MOSCOW (MRC) -- The fourth-largest US refiner Phillips 66 said it has put the smaller of its two Louisiana refineries up for sale amid continued losses and an uncertain future for motor fuels, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The company is holding talks with a potential buyer on the sale of its 255,600 barrel-per-day (bpd) Alliance refinery in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, according to two people familiar with the matter. The identity of the potential buyer could not immediately be learned.
US refiners have closed or sold oil processing plants as the COVID-19 pandemic slashed demand for gasoline and jet fuel, generating losses for the industry.
Top automakers are accelerating their shift to electric vehicles, signaling tougher times ahead.
"The US refining business in the future is going to be smaller, not bigger," Chief Executive Officer Greg Garland said earlier this month while laying out Phillips 66's plans to expand its supply of lower-carbon fuels and components for electric car batteries.
Garland predicted gasoline demand in the United States and Europe was at or near its peak. The Houston-based refiner posted a second-quarter profit on strong chemical demand, but work-from-home policies and sagging fuel margins left its refining business in the red.
Phillips 66's pursuit of a buyer for the Louisiana plant continues an industry rationalization of excess capacity, said Garfield Miller, CEO of investment bank Aegis Energy Advisors.
Falling demand amid the pandemic has forced the closure of five US refineries and cut oil processing capacity by 4.5% to 18.13 million barrels per day (bpd), according to the US Energy Information Administration.
The 50-year-old Alliance refinery is located 20 miles (32 km) south of New Orleans along the Mississippi River, where ships deliver crude oil retrieve fuel.
As MRC informed previously, Worley has been recently awarded a front-end engineering services contract by Phillips 66 to convert its San Francisco refinery in Rodeo, California, USA into a renewable fuels-manufacturing facility. Under the contract, Worley will provide front-end engineering design services for the facility, which will be executed by Worley’s North America West team with support from Worley’s Global Integrated Delivery team.
Besides, in October 2020, Phillips 66 said it plans to reconfigure its refinery in Rodeo, California to produce renewable fuels from used cooking oil, fats, greases and soybean oils.
We remind that US-based Phillips 66 remains open to developing another ethane cracker for its Chevron Phillips Chemical (CP Chem) joint venture, the refiner's CEO said in March 2018.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
Phillips 66 is a diversified energy manufacturing and logistics company. With a portfolio of Midstream, Chemicals, Refining, and Marketing and Specialties businesses, the company processes, transports, stores and markets fuels and products globally. Phillips 66 Partners, the company’s master limited partnership, is integral to the portfolio. Headquartered in Houston, the company has 14,300 employees committed to safety and operating excellence. Phillips 66 had USD55 billion of assets as of Dec. 31, 2020.
MRC