Refinery

Now that Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. has taken ownership of the closed Marcus Hook refinery, the pipeline company has big plans for the Delaware River industrial site. Sunoco Logistics chief executive Michael J. Hennigan provided analysts with details Thursday about how the pipeline and terminal company plans to repurpose the refinery as a hub for shipping liquid fuels produced from natural-gas drilling in the Marcellus and Utica Shales. "We plan to create a world-class natural-gas liquids hub on the East Coast," Hennigan said.

Several black men who were contracted to work at the Sunoco refinery in Philadelphia were forced to clean up racial slurs written about them on bathroom walls, the men claim in a federal civil rights lawsuit. Along with racial epithets, the men also claim in the suit filed Wednesday that there were nooses left around the workplace on several occasions. The six plaintiffs, led by Kenneth Hall, 40, of Philadelphia, were all employees of Advanced Speciality Contractors, of Aston, which was contracted to work on a project at the Sunoco refinery on Passyunk Avenue near 61st Street in Southwest Philadelphia, the suit said.

Delta Air Lines on Friday finalized its purchase of the ConocoPhillips refinery in Trainer and will begin to bring back about 400 employees who were laid off last year when the plant was idled. A Delta spokesman said that its subsidiary, Monroe Energy L.L.C., will start a turnaround at the Delaware County refinery after the July 4 holiday with the aim of resuming fuel production this fall. The airline paid $180 million for the plant, with the Corbett administration chipping in $30 million on the condition that Monroe maintain 400 employees for five years.

Buried drums of oil waste discovered in August 1986 at the Mobil Oil Corp.' s Paulsboro refinery have not been excavated, and the company and the state Department of Environmental Protection are stalled on beginning cleanup. "We want to clean up the site and the DEP wants us to," said Carole Edwards, spokeswoman for Mobil, "but we want an evenhanded agreement. " Mobil, which employs 900 people and has a daily process capacity of 100,000 barrels of crude oil at the refinery, contends that the administrative consent order for cleanup contains unacceptable legal provisions.

Some former workers at a mothballed refinery in Marcus Hook soon could be back to work. Yesterday, officials with Tosco, the plant's new owners, announced they had reached a tentative agreement with the union. Denis Stephano, president of the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Union Local 8-234 and International, said members would consider the proposed agreement during meetings last night and tonight. A secret ballot vote on the proposed contract is scheduled for Friday evening.

Pollution from refineries along the Schuylkill River - including up to 3.6 million gallons of oil beneath one active refinery site - is far from the only culprit in degrading the groundwater in South Philadelphia. But it's a reasonable suspect, government officials say. "I guess there's at least a smoking gun there," said Charles R. Wood, sub-district chief for the U.S. Geological Survey, after examining maps showing troublesome mineral levels in groundwater between the refinery area and the Philadelphia Naval Base.

A tremendous explosion, felt and heard as far away as South Jersey, ignited a five-alarm fire this morning at the Atlantic Oil refinery at Passyunk and Schuylkill avenues in South Philadelphia. One employee, Pete Sanduski, suffered facial cuts when he was struck by flying glass. Fire officials said the blast, which broke windows and rocked homes in several South Philadelphia neighborhoods, occurred at 9:21 a.m., blowing the top off a tank containing what a refinery spokesman described as "sour water" - various waste by-products used in the refining process.

Chevron Corp. expects to announce the sale of its Philadelphia refinery, the largest of the eight refineries on the Delaware River, by the end of the year. James Galloway, spokesman for the Philadelphia refinery, said yesterday that the company had received a number of "bids which appear to be viable" and was now talking with the parties. The company, based in San Francisco, will not disclose the exact number of bids, the value of them, or the identify of the bidders, Galloway said.

The Chevron USA refinery in South Philadelphia is going to be sold to Sun Co., which owns a refinery next door. Industry insiders considered Philadelphia-based Sun the most likely buyer when San Francisco-based Chevron put the 66-year-old refinery up for sale last May. But in December, Chevron entered into a tentative agreement of sale with Lincolnshire Management Inc., a New York City investment group. Yesterday, Peter McCrea, Chevron's vice president in charge of the asset sale, said the company and Lincolnshire could not agree on terms that "met the needs" of both parties.

Braskem America, the subsidiary of a Brazilian industrial firm that bought Sunoco Chemical two years ago, said it had it acquired the propylene splitter assets at Sunoco's closed refinery in Marcus Hook. The unit produces material used by Braskem in its neighboring plant to manufacture polypropylene plastic. "This transaction represents an important step in preserving the viability of Braskem's Marcus Hook polypropylene facility for the foreseeable future and solidifying Braskem's continued commitment to the North American petrochemical market," the company, which is based in Philadelphia, said in a statement.

Now that Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. has taken ownership of the closed Marcus Hook refinery, the pipeline company has big plans for the Delaware River industrial site. Sunoco Logistics chief executive Michael J. Hennigan provided analysts with details Thursday about how the pipeline and terminal company plans to repurpose the refinery as a hub for shipping liquid fuels produced from natural-gas drilling in the Marcellus and Utica Shales. "We plan to create a world-class natural-gas liquids hub on the East Coast," Hennigan said.

Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P., the energy pipelines and terminal operator, has acquired the former Sunoco refinery in Marcus Hook for $60 million and plans to develop it into "world class" hub for shipping natural gas liquids from the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations. The acquisition, announced with the company's first quarter earnings on Wednesday, "demonstrates Sunoco Logistics' continued commitment to pursue opportunistic growth in natural gas liquids," said Michael J. Hennigan, president and chief executive officer.

Shares of Delta Air Lines rose 5 percent after the carrier said Monday that it expected a second-quarter profit of $75 million to $100 million at its oil refinery in Trainer. Delta also said the current quarter would be the airline's first profitable March quarter since 2000. "Running an oil refinery, much like running an airline, is not for the faint of heart," Delta president Edward Bastian told a JPMorgan conference. He said operational issues kept the refinery at 75 percent capacity in January and February.

The oil refinery in Trainer owned by Delta Air Lines received its first shipment of Bakken crude oil from North Dakota on Feb. 12. The test shipment traveled in more than 100 rail cars to Albany, N.Y., where it was moved to a ship, and transported to Delta's docks in Trainer. "We are still evaluating our crude sourcing options. We don't currently have a facility to off-load from rail at Trainer," Delta spokesman Trebor Banstetter said. "If we decide to go ahead fully into the Bakken to get our crude, then we would invest in some rail facilities there, and it would come by rail all the way to the refinery.

PBF Energy Inc. said it expects to receive its first train delivery this week of North Dakota light crude oil at its Delaware City Refinery, and also announced that it will double the amount of heavy Canadian oil-sands crude it can receive by rail by the end of this year. The refinery can now receive 70,000 barrels of light crude a day and 40,000 barrels of heavy crude. The heavy crude capacity will double to 80,000 under a $50 million plan to expand the unloading facility. PBF is also securing an additional 2,500 rail cars through 2015 to transport the crude oil. PBF and other East Coast refiners are scrambling to incorporate lower-cost domestic crudes from new discoveries into their mix to reduce their production costs, which typically have been higher because of their reliance on expensive imported petroleum.

In the Region Glaxo to team up for vaccine in India   GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C. agreed to form a joint venture in India to produce a six-in-one vaccine to immunize children in developing countries against infectious diseases. The London-based drugmaker, which has significant operations in the Philadelphia area, has agreed to form a 50-50 venture with India's Biological E Ltd. to develop a product that would combine Glaxo's injectable polio shot with a vaccine produced by Biological E that protects against five diseases, including diphtheria and tetanus.

The oil refinery in Trainer, now owned by Delta Air Lines, had a $63 million loss in November and December caused by Hurricane Sandy. Delta, which kicked off airlines' fourth-quarter earnings reports Tuesday, said Sandy damaged regional pipelines and terminals in the area and slowed distribution of products. "This, in turn, forced Trainer to slow production and lower efficiency," said Delta's chief financial officer, Paul Jacobson. "However, refinery operations are recovering, and we expect Trainer to realize a modest profit in the March quarter.

Few bosses of big companies win many popularity contests. Even fewer do when they break up the companies and sell off the parts. Still, it was striking that months after Sunoco Inc.'s Philadelphia refinery was saved from closure, the former CEO of the energy company could inspire such animosity from a panel of insiders who'd gathered to recount how the rescue was accomplished. The occasion was a Friday symposium organized by the Temple University Center on Regional Politics. At a panel discussion on how political, business, and labor leaders cooperated to help find buyers for two of the three threatened refineries, U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, a Philadelphia Democrat, voiced publicly what others had said privately.

Phillips 66 Co. has agreed to pay a $50,000 penalty to settle alleged violations of hazardous waste regulations at its former refinery in Trainer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday. EPA cited Phillips 66 for violations involving the storage of hazardous materials including refinery hydrocarbon waste, chromium waste, heavy metal waste from batteries and mercury waste from fluorescent bulbs. Phillips 66 Co. is the successor to ConocoPhillips Corp., which owned the refinery until it was sold last year to Monroe Energy, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines.

Delta Air Lines, which now owns the refinery in Trainer, says Hurricane Sandy delayed the start of its new operation there. Instead of generating a modest profit in the first quarter, the plant will have a $50 million to $60 million loss. The good news: The pipelines are back online, and the distribution outlets "are in check," president Edward Bastian told analysts at Delta's investor day in New York on Wednesday. Production scheduled for 2013 at Delta subsidiary Monroe Energy L.L.C.