ConocoPhillips follows Sunoco in shutting down

The other shoe fell this morning down in the "lower end" of the county.

First Sunoco, now ConocoPhillips. The Trainer refinery announced it would be halting operations at its Delco plant while it seeks a buyer. It's not wasting any time either. The plant is being idled immediately. If a buyer can't be found by the end of the year, it will be shuttered.

There are more than 400 jobs at stake at ConocoPhillips. That comes no the heels of a similar announcement several weeks back from Sunoco. They indicated if they could not find a buyer for their iconic Marcus Hook refinery, they will padlock the joint as well, along with their South Philly refinery. More than 600 people go to work every day at the Hook plant.

Conoco says it will try to redeploy employees to other company operations. But there are no guarantees.

Guess the refinery business isn't what is used to be.

It's an economic death knell for that end of the county, and in particular for the Chichester School District.

Comments

Anonymous said…
We see a lot of talk about the end of newspapers in this internet era - well here is a case where our local papers can step up and show their value. We need some solid investigative reporting on how it is, when US refining capacity is (we are told) strained, when oil prices are high, that it is allegedly difficult to turn a profit with these refineries - and let the chips fall where they may. Over-regulation? Foreign competition? Other? And we should also get some solid answers as to who will be stuck with the clean-up tab if the refineries are "shuttered". Because this DOES have the possibility of being an economic catastrophe for the surrounding communities. I hope our local press will step up and do us all proud - what is the REAL story here?
September 27, 2011 at 12:11 PM
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