Refinery

They lobbied politicians — locally, statewide and nationally. They held rallies. They researched industry trends. They talked financial strategies, wooed businesses and wrote thousands of letters. Most important, they united to craft a persuasive message that resonated with people who may have otherwise had no interest in the fate of three nearly shuttered oil refineries along the Delaware River and the thousands of people who worked in them. And, in the end, they may have helped save many of their own jobs, plus many other jobs in the Southwest Philadelphia and Delaware County.

A consultant on Wednesday said the best hope for Sunoco's idled Marcus Hook refinery site is to be reborn as a multipurpose energy processing facility, fueled by the growing output of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale drilling boom. Local officials yesterday presented a road map for what Delaware County Councilman Tom McGarrigle called the "economic second life for Marcus Hook," which looks remarkably like its first life – processing hydrocarbons extracted from the earth into fuel and chemicals.

IN THE REGION Delta completes refinery buy 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.

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.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission on Thursday approved the transfer of pipelines connected with the ConocoPhillips refinery in Trainer, removing an obstacle to the refinery's sale to Delta Air Lines Inc. The PUC approved the late-hour request on a fast track after the companies involved in the sale realized that some pipelines came under the jurisdiction of the utility commission, and that regulatory approval was required. The application was filed on May 25. Commission chairman Robert F. Powelson extolled the PUC's contribution to efforts to assist in the Delaware County refinery's sale, which is being supported with $30 million in grants from the Corbett administration.

Gov. Corbett is hailing it as "an important win for the local community and the people of Pennsylvania. " C. Alan Walker, secretary of the state Department of Community and Economic Development, calls it a "win-win for everybody. " Their effusive praise was for a taxpayer-aided deal that will see Delta Air Lines buy the recently idled ConocoPhillips gasoline refinery in Trainer. In an attempt to battle rising jet-fuel costs, Delta will refine its own at the site, which will supposedly save $300 million a year.

At the risk of sounding callous, my first reaction at hearing that Philadelphia's Sunoco refinery might close was excitement. Yes, it would mean job losses, as many as 900 good blue-collar positions, which are all too rare in this city in the first place. Yet all I could think about was the potential. Imagine 1,400 riverfront acres - now given over to hideous distillation towers and storage tanks - cleaned up and converted into something spectacular. Parkland. A second Navy Yard.

The Delaware County Industrial Development Authority on Wednesday announced it has contracted with IHS Global Inc. to study potential uses for the 781-acre Sunoco Inc. Marcus Hook complex. The $100,000 study, which the Delaware County Council has agreed to finance, is expected to be completed in a month. Sunoco shut down its refinery in December, but says it has received no credible offers to operate the site as a refinery. IHS Global, an international information company with experts in energy, economics, sustainability and supply-chain management, is based in Colorado and has local offices in Eddystone.