LyondellBasell plans to close its Houston refinery

LyondellBasell, the multinational chemical company with headquarters in Houston, plans to close its Houston refinery and exit the refining industry, it said Thursday. Employees of the refinery — one of the largest in the U.S. — were informed Thursday of the company’s plans to close the facility, the Netherlands-incorporated company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It plans to close the plant by by Dec. 31 of next year. The company announced in September it was considering selling the plant after scrapping plans to offload it in 2017. Lyondell will "continue to consider potential transactions and alternatives for the site," it said Thursday in a statement.

"After thoroughly analyzing our options, we have determined that exiting the refining business by the end of next year is the best strategic and financial path forward for the Company," said Ken Lane, the company's interim CEO. "These decisions are never easy and we understand this has a very real impact on our refinery employees, their families and the community. We are committed to supporting our people through this transition." Around 550 people work at the Houston Refinery, which is one of the largest in the United States. It is capable of refining 268,000 barrels of oil per day of crude into transportation fuels such as reformulated gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, as well as products like lubricants and petroleum coke. The closure would be the latest in a series of major refineries to shutter since the start of the pandemic, which forced refiners to reckon with mounting costs and declining future prospects for gasoline as the energy transition accelerated. Refinery closings have stripped 1 million barrels per day from the U.S. market since January 2020, pushing remaining refineries to stretch to meet soaring demand as Russian supply slides from the global market.