June 20, 2012:

Manager of Lube Studies will present on base oil economics from the refinery standpoint in Asia and the Middle East at the conference in Singapore.

Jamie Brunk of Solomon Associates, the leading performance improvement company for the global energy industry, will present “Fuels Versus Lubes – Refinery Economics in Asia and the Middle East” at the 6th ICIS Asian Base Oils & Lubricants Conference, June 27–28, at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore.  As manager of the Lube Study, Brunk oversees Solomon’s industry standard Worldwide Paraffinic Lube Refinery Performance Analysis as well as base oil and wax consulting. Brunk will discuss base oil economics from the refinery standpoint in Asia and the Middle East and how refineries can adapt in an uncertain world. “The presentation will review refinery profitability from both the fuels and lube perspective,” said Brunk. “The first thing to understand is that every refinery is different.”

For example, factors such as company size, corporate structure, and analytical capabilities combine to determine a refinery’s views of return on investment. Brunk will describe industry trends in base oils production and what Solomon sees for the future.  Brunk’s 36 years of experience include base oil and wax refining, planning and optimization, strategy development, base oil sales and purchase, supply and distribution, and asset sales and acquisitions. Prior to joining Solomon, he was employed by Shell and its predecessor companies, where he gained experience in managing all aspects of the base oil business.  In 2011, more than 300 industry professionals and personnel attended the ICIS Asian Base Oils & Lubricants Conference. This year’s attendees will gain insights about the changing landscape of the base oils industry in Asia and the rest of the world, as new capacity comes on stream in the region and globally, and the move to higher quality base oil consumption continues.

Brunk will present on Wednesday, June 27, at 3:00 p.m.

Learn more or register to attend at http://www.icisconference.com/sixthbaseoils.

About Solomon Associates

Based in Dallas, HSB Solomon Associates LLC is the world’s leading performance improvement company for energy companies seeking to identify and close gaps in operational performance. Combining proven, patented methodologies with objective data analysis, and led by a team of energy consultants steeped in hands-on operational experience, Solomon Associates consistently helps clients with energy-intensive assets achieve greater efficiencies, enhanced reliability, and improved margins. Solomon Associates is part of HSB Group, Inc. Learn more about Solomon Associates' energy benchmarking and consulting services at http://www.solomononline.com.

By Chron.com

June 20, 2012:

WORKERS at an oil refinery set to close with the loss of hundreds of jobs feel “let down” by the Government, unions said. Unite said its members at the Coryton site in Essex also felt they had been “led down the garden path” by administrators. Workers staged a protest yesterday outside the energy department in London, before a meeting between union officials, Energy Minister Charles Hendry and local politicians. Linda McCulloch national officer for Unite, said last night: “The workers at Coryton feel as though they have been led down the garden path by the administrators and let down by the Government who continue to sit on their hands and refuse to offer state aid. “These are skilled workers who have worked tirelessly to keep the refinery going and make it one of the most efficient in Europe. It is short sighted to throw hard working people on the dole. It makes no economic sense in the medium to long term and will undermine the UK’s refining capacity.”

Speaking yesterday, Essex MEP Richard Howitt, said: “I fully understand the anger of the Coryton workers protesting today and join them in condemning the inaction of this Government. “The first redundancies announced earlier this week are a bitter blow for the workers of Coryton and their families who have worked so hard since the New Year to help the plant to operate at peak efficiency until a new buyer was found. “The failure to find a buyer for the refinery is lamentable given the high level of initial interest and the success elsewhere in Europe of selling off the other bankrupt Petroplus plants. “And the real failure is that of the Government - whilst the French immediately put in state aid to support their refinery in trouble, the British Government has not even formally consulted the European Commission about the option of state support. “No wonder everyone at Coryton feels so let down. “I hope a last minute rescue is possible as no one wants to see these jobs lost and the refining capacity lost to the UK. “Coryton is a highly regarded refinery operation and it would be a sad day to see the plant used solely as a storage facility.”

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Hendry said: “From the outset of this process, we have worked tirelessly with the administrator to find a way to secure a successful outcome for Coryton and to safeguard local jobs. “It is extremely disappointing that the administrators have not found a buyer for the refinery, despite their strong efforts. Unfortunately considerable additional investment is needed to keep the refinery operating efficiently, and this has meant that potential bidders have been faced with high upfront investments to make in the order of some hundreds of millions.” UK refineries faced tough competition from other refineries in Europe and Asia, Mr Hendry said. “We looked long and hard at whether or not state aid should be provided for Coryton. But we came to the conclusion that the existing overcapacity in the refining industry and declining demand for petrol means that it would not be sustainable.”

He added: “We realise this is a really worrying time for those who work at the refinery in Coryton, for their families and their communities more generally. We will be doing whatever we can to support people through this difficult period.

By York Shire Post

June 18, 2012:

LONDON - Around 180 staff will be laid off at the Coryton refinery in Britain next week, administrator PriceWaterhouseCoopers said, increasing the chances it will be turned into a storage terminal. Such a move would mean the vast majority of the 900 jobs become redundant. The plant directly employs 500 staff at the site, and there are around 400 contractors.  "The administrators today met with staff and announced that approximately 180 staff will be made redundant next week," PwC said on Monday. "Conversations will take place over the following days with affected individuals." Workers were told about the layoffs at a meeting at which it was also announced there would be further redundancies in July, a union source told Reuters. "We get paid on (June) 22nd, and the first wave will be after that, with the second wave at the end of July." He said PwC reiterated its message that the most likely scenario was the terminal becoming a storage terminal.

"The impression I got was that there was no chance it will stay as a refinery," the union source said. Royal Dutch Shell, Greenergy and Vopak are interested in buying the terminal to turn it into storage, union officials said last week. Igor Yusufov is still interested in buying the plant, a source familiar with the matter said, adding that the former Russian energy minister would want a technical audit of the refinery before a deal could close, which would take until July.

By Reuters

June 18, 2012:

U.S. regional refined product margins were up by about 3 percent on average, showing mixed reactions across the regions in the week ended June 15, Credit Suisse said in a weekly report on Monday. Northeast margins rose about 14 percent for the highest gain, followed by a 11 percent rise in refining margins in the Gulf Coast region. Margins in the Rocky Mountain region rose about 2 percent. However, West Coast margins plunged more than 8 percent while, margins on the MidWest region dropped about 3 percent. WTI prices were down the past week, falling by $1.13 a barrel to

$83.32 a barrel. Oil prices were lower due to continuing European sovereign debt concerns and lessening concerns about supply disruptions from Iran, Credit Suisse said in a report.The following table shows refinery margins and changes in dollars per barrel.

                  Date     Northeast  MidWest  Gulf Coast  Rockies  West Coast

 Current week     Jun-15   13.63      33.32    17.93       49.32    11.73

 Previous week    Jun-08   11.99      34.48    16.18       48.49    12.82

 Change                           1.64       -1.16    1.75        0.83     -1.09

 Pct change                     13.65      -3.37    10.83       1.71     -8.52

 Trailing 4-week  Jun-15   11.69      33.22    16.83       47.65    15.15

 Previous year    Jun-17   7.87       31.44    9.01        33.77    16.88

 Change Y-on-Y             3.82       1.78     7.82        13.89    -1.73

By Reuters

June 18, 2012:

CORYTON REFINERY, England--There's no credible bid for Petroplus Holdings AG's Coryton refinery in England to operate it as a refinery, and the first 180 redundancies are planned by the end of next week, the administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers and the chairman of Unite labor union at Coryton said Monday.  Approximately 100 more jobs will be cut in July, with the rest by September, said Unite's Russell Jackson. PricewaterhouseCoopers, the administrator of Petroplus's U.K. subsidiaries, confirmed Monday in a statement that around 180 staff will be made redundant next week, adding that "there would likely be a substantial number of redundancies from the 500 workforce." PWC said: "Following cessation of refining activities last week, the program to safely wind down operations at the refinery continues."

It is highly unlikely Coryton will be sold as a refinery, but talks with "various parties who have expressed an interest in acquiring the Coryton site" continue, PWC said. There is a high possibility a deal to turn the 220,000-barrel-a-day facility into a terminal will be struck, Mr. Jackson said. Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA), Royal Vopak NV and Greenergy Ltd. are the main joint bidder to turn Coryton into a terminal, and Shell is the major party in the bid at this stage, Mr. Jackson said. Vopak was not immediately available to comment on the issue, while Greenergy and Shell declined to comment. The terminal bid is of a greater value than the refinery bids the administrator had, said Mr. Jackson who worked at the refinery for 29 years. Before Petroplus lost access to all its credit lines and then filed for insolvency in January, Coryton was supplying around 10% of the U.K.'s fuel market.

By Dow Jones Newswires