Falling fuel demand accelerates refinery closures



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Refineries around the world have announced the permanent closure of refinery capacity this year after the pandemic crushed global fuel demand, and significant overcapacity still remains, the International Energy Agency said Thursday. (IEA).

In its monthly oil market report, the EIA said permanent closures of the refinery’s capacity reached 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd). But another crude oil distillation capacity of more than 20 million barrels per day is now inactive, the Paris-based agency said, noting that “significant structural overcapacity remains.”

In recent months alone, refineries have announced more than ten permanent refinery closures, with the highest capacity expected to close, 1 million barrels per day, in the United States, according to the IEA.

“There were capacity outages planned for 2020-2021 prior to COVID-19, but most of the new announcements reflect the pessimism about refining the economy in a world suffering from temporary slump in demand and structural refining overcapacity.” , the agency said in the report, as brought by Reuters.

Refineries in the United States are running out of refinery capacity and cutting jobs to cope with losses resulting from the slump in demand in the pandemic.

Refineries are also closing down permanently or converging oil refineries as the slump in demand caused by the pandemic continues to squeeze refining margins.

Several refineries and oil majors have recently announced permanent closures in the US and Asia, while analysts believe some high-cost refineries in Europe may be closed in the coming years as margins for converting crude to fuel are expected to remain low.

Shell said this week that it will halve the crude oil processing capacity of its largest refinery in the world, Pulau Bukom in Singapore, as part of its ambition to be a net-zero emissions company by 2050 or earlier.

Also this week, Petroineos, a joint venture of Ineos and PetroChina, said it plans to permanently close some units at the 210,000 bpd Grangemouth refinery, the only refinery in Scotland, which will cut the facility’s refining capacity to 150,000 bpd. .

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oil “

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