Planned shutdown of Philadelphia refinery will change gasoline and diesel supply patterns for the U.S. East Coast (7/3/2019)

On Friday, June 21, the Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) 335,000 barrels per day (b/d) refinery in South Philadelphia experienced a major fire and explosion. The resulting damage to the refinery and preexisting financial strains led PES to announce its intention to shut down operations at the refinery. The closure of the Philadelphia refinery would decrease the number of operating East Coast refineries to seven and total operating capacity to 889,000 b/d (Figure 1). The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates closing the Philadelphia refinery would reduce East Coast gasoline supplies by approximately 160,000 b/d and distillate supplies by approximately 100,000 b/d. The potential shutdown of the largest refinery by capacity on the U.S. East Coast is likely to reconfigure petroleum product supply chains in the Central Atlantic. ... More »