Shell is to close two US-based operations, but open one new one and save another.
The two operations set for closure are Shell Lubricants' Wood River Blending plant in Roxana, Kentucky, and its St. Louis regional distribution centre in O'Fallon Missouri. A total of 96 jobs are affected by the news with Shell deciding not to renew its lease on the 95 year-old refinery and close the distribution facility.
However, there was better news for the jobs market in Texas, with the oil major announcing a new lubes blending centre at it plant in Houston as well as upgrading the existing operations. In addition, the company is set to expand a similar plant in Congo, West Virginia. The Houston news was further boosted by the plant becoming the first in the US to blend gas-to-liquids (GTL) base oil, with stock shipped from the company's massive Pearl GTL plant.
Shell has also been busy in Europe where it will hire the Petit-Couronne refinery from the now-bankrupt lubes producer, Petrolplus. The Swiss-based company went into liquidation at the start of the year and began a wind-down of the plant. Shell, which ironically sold the plant to Petroplus in the first place, will now pay around €20m of the €50m restart costs, with the French Government paying the balance.
There was also encouraging news for Petrolplus' operations in Antwerp, Belgium, where a potential buyer "has been selected" according to the administrators to purchase the refinery, while the 180,000b/d plant in Coryton, UK, is continuing to run at a lower capacity after agreeing a deal with Morgan Stanley bank.