Refinery

Who knew that the economic solution for the region's beleaguered oil refineries would arrive on a slow train from North Dakota? Delta Air Lines, the new owner of the Trainer refinery that is scheduled to reopen later this month, on Thursday became the third fuel producer in the Philadelphia area to announce plans to bring in crude oil by rail from the Bakken oil field in the upper Midwest. Edward Bastian, the airline's president, told an investor conference in New York that Delta plans to replace some imported oil at Trainer with domestic crude brought in by rail.

PUNTO FIJO, Venezuela - An intense fire at a Venezuelan refinery spread to a third fuel tank on Monday, nearly three days after an explosion killed at least 41 people and injured more than 150. Vice President Elias Jaua said in a message on Twitter that a third tank had just ignited at the Amuay refinery, which has been in flames since Saturday's blast. Government officials had previously said that they had the blaze contained, but the spread to another fuel tank was a setback to their plans to quickly restart the refinery.

SAN FRANCISCO - Federal investigators probing the cause of a huge Chevron oil-refinery fire are focusing on possible corrosion in a decades-old pipe the company inspected late last year but did not replace. Investigators with the U.S. Chemical Safety Board told the Associated Press on Saturday that the November inspection led Chevron to replace an old pipe connected to the one that failed Monday. The fire exploded when a vapor cloud ignited, endangering more than a dozen workers in the immediate vicinity.

RICHMOND, Calif. - A major fire at one of the country's biggest oil refineries that sent scores of people to hospitals with complaints of breathing problems will push gas prices above $4 a gallon on the West Coast, analysts said Tuesday. The fire, which sent plumes of black smoke over the San Francisco Bay Area, erupted Monday evening in the huge Chevron refinery about 10 miles northeast of San Francisco. It was out early Tuesday, although officials were still conducting a controlled burn.

It is with a serious leap of faith — if not a plentiful supply of antacids — that small business owners take the plunge into the terrifyingly unpredictable world of entrepreneurship. But Mario Giambrone thought he was leaping into a pretty sure thing a little more than four years ago. He was opening Italiano's restaurant in Marcus Hook, a small town bursting with hungry lunch crowds. On one end was the Sunoco refinery, spread over 781 acres and employing nearly 600 people.

When Delta Air Lines decided to buy the idled Trainer refinery outside Philadelphia to keep itself supplied with jet fuel, the announcement was met with a mix of skepticism, outright disbelief, and nods of approval from experts who follow the airline industry and oil and energy markets. Delta's move was smart, risky, insane, stupid, even brilliant — or all of those. "Is there a better investment than a refinery? Maybe not," wrote airline analyst Helane Becker in a client note.

Another day, another refinery deal. For the third time in three months, Gov. Corbett on Wednesday stood in front of the stained steel towers of a Philadelphia-area refinery to unveil a state-subsidized deal to save jobs in the oil and petrochemical industry. The governor said the state would provide $15 million to support Braskem America Inc.'s acquisition of a chemical processing unit at Sunoco's Marcus Hook refinery, which will be integrated into Braskem's neighboring plant that manufactures polypropylene plastic.

Democrats love to bash the private-equity firm Bain Capital and its former chief executive, Mitt Romney, as evil "vulture capitalists" bent on destroying America's middle class and shipping jobs overseas. From the din of the attack ads and the relentless recitation of talking points on cable news in this presidential election year, you might think the party of JFK and FDR had a serious problem with private-equity firms, which specialize in leveraged buyouts of ailing companies.

Another day, another refinery deal. For the third time in three months, Gov. Corbett on Wednesday stood in front of the stained steel towers of a Philadelphia area refinery to unveil a state-subsidized deal to save jobs in the oil and petrochemical industry. The governor said the state would provide $15 million to support Braskem America Inc.'s acquisition of a chemical processing unit at Sunoco's Marcus Hook refinery, which will be integrated into Braskem's neighboring plant that manufactures polypropylene plastic.