Marathon Petroleum to permanently close two U.S. oil refineries

[bigun]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-refineries-operations-marathon-ptrlum-idUSKBN24X3XU

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Marathon Petroleum (MPC.N) plans to permanently close two small U.S. oil refineries in Martinez, California, and Gallup, New Mexico, the company said, eliminating 800 jobs in response to lower fuels demand.

The largest U.S. refiner by volume had earlier idled the two facilities following weak demand due to COVID-19 outbreaks in the United States. U.S. refiners on average idled about 20% of total processing capacity on falling vehicle and air travel.

Marathon said it plans to use the Martinez facility as an oil-storage facility and is evaluating its future use to produce renewable diesel, a fuel made from industry waste and used cooking oil. Martinez is California’s fourth largest refinery.

The company on Monday is forecast to swing to a second-quarter loss of $1.75 per share, from a $1.73 per share profit a year ago, according to Refinitiv data.

Marathon is negotiating a sale of its Speedway gasoline station network, a deal that could fetch between $15 billion and $17 billion, Reuters reported last month.

Marathon shares traded at $38.20 on Friday, down 38% year to date.

Marathon spokesman Sid Barth declined further comment about the closures on Saturday.

About 860 employees work at the 161,000 barrel per day (bpd) Martinez and 27,000-bpd Gallup refineries. “Most jobs at these refineries will no longer be necessary, and we expect to begin a phased reduction of staffing levels” in October, the company said.

The closings are not anticipated to result in supply disruptions. “We will continue to utilize our integrated system to meet customer commitments,” the company said in a statement on its website.

Reporting by Gary McWilliams and Erwin Seba in Houston; Editing by Diane Craft and Daniel Wallis

The refinery in Gallup has been there for 60 years employees 230 employees and closing it will only leave one refinery in the state.
Although they didn't say it the Dems in the state have had a love hate relationship with the oil and gas industry, they love the money the taxes bring in, but the hate the industry. This is going to be devastating to the city of Gallup, and the surronding area.

 

[SanDiegoCJ]

Hardly surprising. The oil industry has taken it up the ass with this Kung Flu shit.

 

[Provience]

oof, dang. such is cheap oil

 

[evernoob]

The refinery in Gallup has been there for 60 years employees 230 employees and closing it will only leave one refinery in the state.
Although they didn't say it the Dems in the state have had a love hate relationship with the oil and gas industry, they love the money the taxes bring in, but the hate the industry. This is going to be devastating to the city of Gallup, and the surronding area.

Hardly surprising. The oil industry has taken it up the ass with this Kung Flu shit.

yeah but these refineries pre-date the oil boom If I Understand Correctly.

Fracking and Oil Boom was highly leveraged, Russia moved on that with Saudi Arabia's help of course.

Does anybody know where they plan to get the capacity back if/when the economy recovers?

 

[shortbus4x4]

Gas prices in CA will go up even more. I can remember doing rifle qual at Mare Island with lookouts posted to give the cease fire signal when a tanker would go by. I think they were headed to the refinery in Martinez or Benicia, can't remember for sure.

 

[Redtruggy]

Dammit, we do quite a lot of work at gallup. Well we used to till a goober arced a high voltage like with a hydrovac boom and the whole place went Into e-stop. We were picking back up some work though here lately.

 

[welndmn]

I live by the one in Martinez, it's sad to see the jobs go away, but they use tons of contractors and tons of businesses that only support the refineries.
Whats odd is Marathon bought the ones in Martinez in 2018, and it was losing money then too.
Shell is also in Martinez and pretty much made the town in 1914 when they opened. They sold out in 2019 to some New Jersey company.
Martinez was always a refinery town with mostly small refinery homes, but the last 15 years or so with the surge in bay area home prices brought the million dollar homes into Martinez, with those homes comes people who do not like the way the town is run.
In Martinez, the refineries are all next to each other, along with the waste water treatment plant as well, as a joke we always gave the town the slogan of "Martinez, where the sewer meets the sea." from the smells that came off that area, I guess the million dollar home people got tired of it.