October 9, 2020:

Canada-based Irving Oil has ended its agreement with Silverpeak to buy North Atlantic Refinery Limited (NARL), the operator of the 135,000 barrels a day (b/d) Come-by-Chance refinery in Newfoundland. As previously reported by Bunkerspot, Irving Oil announced its plan to buy North Atlantic on 28 May – but in a terse statement issued on Tuesday this week (6 October) the company said that agreement was ‘terminated’ and ‘confidentiality provisions’ prohibit it from ‘commenting further at this time’. When Irving first revealed its plan to buy North Atlantic it said there were considerable synergies between their operations – but this has been a difficult year for both companies. NARL’s refinery was idled at the end of March in response to the coronavirus oubreak. In July, Irving Oil announced that it would be reducing its global workforce by around 6% as a result of the ‘extreme challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic’. Reuters has quoted sources as saying that North Atlantic is still ‘actively looking for [an] alternate buyer’ and local media have reported that Origin International is interested in the facility. Both Irving Oil and North Atlantic are players in the Canadian bunker market, using product sourced from their own refineries. Irving Oil’s 320,000 b/d plant in Saint John, New Brunswick is Canada’s largest refinery.

By BunkerPost