July 6, 2012:

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. Braskem's supply of propylene had been in question after Sunoco closed the Marcus Hook refinery in December, but Braskem says it now has secured a supply of the raw material from multiple sources.

By Philly.com

Jly 6, 2012:

The gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit was shut following a malfunction on Thursday afternoon at Valero Energy Corp.'s 88,000 barrel per day (bpd) Houston refinery, a company spokesman said on Friday.  The refinery also shut the refinery's alkylation unit. "The cause of the upset in under investigation," said Valero spokesman Bill Day. "We don't expect it to be a lengthy outage."

By Reuters

July 6, 2012:

Saudi Arabia maintained crude oil shipments to the United States in June near their highest level since 2008, data showed, despite a serious glitch that has crippled its newly expanded joint-venture refinery in Texas. In the four weeks to June 29, the United States imported an estimated 1.44 million barrels per day (bpd) of Saudi crude, according to calculations based on preliminary Energy Information Administration (EIA) data. That was steady with the 1.45 million bpd imported in the first four months of the year. The data runs counter to expectations that the one-third surge in Saudi shipments to the United States this year would abruptly slow after Motiva Enterprises shut its new crude unit (CDU) at the Port Arthur, Texas, refinery for up to a year after an apparent chemical leak corroded key pipes. Instead, it suggests that state oil firm Saudi Aramco either found new customers to buy crude that had been earmarked for the idled 325,000 bpd unit or pumped it into storage tanks at the plant, which has been running at less than half its full capacity since early June.

However, because shipping schedules are set weeks or even months in advance, it may have been too late to redirect or resell some June cargoes, delaying the decline until July. An industry source said two weeks ago that state oil firm Saudi Aramco had halted deliveries until at least the middle of July. "The Motiva problems emerged suddenly and couldn't stop the delivery of significant volume of crude oil into the system all at once," said Ed Morse, global head of commodities research at Citigroup and a former energy expert at the State Department. "It wouldn't be surprising to see deliveries from the Kingdom to the U.S. starting to fall off in either next week's data or the data from the week after that." Motiva, co-owned by Royal Dutch Shell, has said the unit suffered corrosion and could be closed for months of repairs - sources say they have told workers these could take up to a year. The unit is at the heart of a $10 billion expansion that made Port Arthur the biggest refinery in the United States. The weekly EIA figures do show that imports fell to just 1 million bpd in the week to June 22, although that was a period when Tropical Storm Debby shut the country's biggest import terminal. They rebounded to more than 1.5 million bpd in the most recent week, according to data on Thursday.

Separate data from the EIA showed that Saudi crude oil shipments bound specifically for Motiva's Port Arthur refinery surged in April to nearly 375,000 bpd, up from a first-quarter average of 206,000 bpd as the company began to heat up the crude unit for operation. The extra crude bound for that plant accounted for almost the entire rise in Saudi imports in April, which reached nearly 1.6 million bpd, the highest monthly total since July 2008. First-quarter imports averaged around 1.4 million bpd.

By Reuters

July 6, 2012:

Workers are returning to the former ConocoPhillips refinery in Trainer, to begin steps toward resuming fuel production in September, a move that new owner Delta Air Lines hopes can cut its jet-fuel bill by $300 million a year. A Delta subsidiary, Monroe Energy L.L.C., closed on the $180 million purchase of the idled oil refinery on June 22. Three days later, the first workers arrived to begin a turnaround, which is a maintenance procedure, and to modify some units and do routine inspections. "It's really humbling to be involved with such an impact in a community," said Jeffrey Warmann, president and CEO of Monroe Energy and the refinery manager. "It's great to see moms and dads, and sisters and brothers, all getting to back to work. I can imagine that in many homes there are smiling faces now."  As maintenance and operations crews arrived for and departed from their shifts about 4:30 p.m. Monday, they greeted one another warmly with handshakes and big grins.

"It's great to be back, and great to be working for a company that seems to really want to get things started," said Stephen Kokas, 60, a carpenter from Bethel Township, Delaware County, who has worked 36 years at the refinery. "Morale is very high. They seem to want to show their best effort toward us, treat us good. And now, we're working on a common goal to turn on the refinery and get the refinery running." Jim Chandler, 63, a boiler operator from Penn Township, Chester County, spent 39 1/2 years at the refinery before the plant closed. "Before we left, I did say that my wife was looking forward to having me home. She changed her mind after three months! She's happy to get me out of the house working." "We're all feeling very pleased with Monroe," Chandler said, "and happy to be back at work." Millwright and union official Denis Stephano said about 177 United Steelworkers members who had worked for ConocoPhillips have returned. About 40 retired or found other jobs after ConocoPhillips halted operations at the Delaware County refinery in September. "We're 40 short. We've already hired some from Sunoco," said Warmann. "We're getting applications from all over. Eight people from Marcus Hook have already accepted positions. There are a lot of great people in the area that need jobs. We've been interviewing and selecting them."

When its refinery is up and running again, Monroe Energy expects to have about 400 workers at the plant, about 220 of whom will be United Steelworkers members.

By Philly.com

July 6, 2012:

Falling crude prices have helped boost profits of oil & gas refineries. According to Energy Department's Energy Information Administration crude represents 66 percent of the cost of gasoline. The recent boom in North American oil production has seen oil supplies in the U.S. rise to their highest levels in 22 years. The Paragon Report examines investing opportunities in the Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing Industry and provides equity research on Phillips 66 PSX -1.27% and Marathon Petroleum Corp. MPC +0.70% . Access to the full company reports can be found at: www.ParagonReport.com/PSX www.ParagonReport.com/MPC. "The primary beneficiary of the secular long term boom in U.S. oil and gas production will be export-oriented processing manufacturers, of which the single biggest, most under-valued sector is refining," Paul Sankey, Deutsche Bank analyst, said in a note to clients.

Refineries in recent weeks have seen upgrades from various analysts. Deutsche Bank earlier this week upgraded Phillips 66, Marathon Petroleum Corp. to a "buy" rating, and Holly Frontier was listed as one of Sankey's top picks. Goldman Sachs analyst Arjun Murti has also upgraded ratings of HollyFrontier Corp. and Marathon Petroleum Corp. to "buy," while Tesoro Corp. was upgraded to "neutral" from "sell" according to a recent Bloomberg article. Paragon Report releases regular market updates on the Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing Industry so investors can stay ahead of the crowd and make the best investment decisions to maximize their returns. Take a few minutes to register with us free at www.ParagonReport.com and get exclusive access to our numerous stock reports and industry newsletters.

HollyFrontier recently reported that its Board of Directors has authorized a $350 million share repurchase program. "Our Board's decision to authorize a second $350 million share repurchase program reflects our continued commitment to deliver value to our shareholders," said Mike Jennings, President and Chief Executive Officer of HollyFrontier. Tesoro last month announced the successful conclusion of contract negotiations at its Golden Eagle (Martinez, California) refinery. Golden Eagle was the last of Tesoro's six United Steelworkers represented refineries to complete negotiations. Shares of the company have rebounded over 18 percent in the last month.

The Paragon Report has not been compensated by any of the above-mentioned publicly traded companies. Paragon Report is compensated by other third party organizations for advertising services. We act as an independent research portal and are aware that all investment entails inherent risks. Please view the full disclaimer at: http://www.paragonreport.com/disclaimer

By: Paragon Financial Limited