Reply #5: One of my first 'real' jobs .... [View All]

[Trajan]

"Shutdown Bum" with OCAW Long Beach CA, working the Watson district refineries ....

Swabbing up spilled crude and shoveling spilled coke under the coke belt ....

From the story:

Existing, complex refiners in the U.S. and Europe have already started converting capacity away from gasoline and naphtha toward profitable middle-distillates like diesel and heating oil, boosted by renewed demand due to the long-term switch to more efficient diesel cars in Europe.

However, analysts have warned that smaller, gasoline focused refineries could be forced to shutdown.

"A lot of refiners in the U.S. who are geared to a 75 percent gasoline yield could go out of business," said Francisco Blanch, head of commodities research at Merrill Lynch investment bank. "We've already seen some pushed out of the market and there will be more."

"We will continue to see run cuts in the short-term as we are still constrained in our ability to switch production from gasoline and naphtha to middle-distillates."

These refiners are clearly in the US as well ....