Oil prices are on the rise, are refinery shutdowns to blame?

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Bad weather over much of the country is doing more than causing power outages and canceling flights. Reports say the cold weather shut down several U.S. oil refineries, causing crude prices to spike.

LyondellBasell Industries on Friday shut down the large crude distillation unit and two hydrotreaters at its 268,000 barrel-per-day Houston refinery due to extreme cold and a winter storm that affected much of the United States and the coast. Gulf, Reuters reported, citing sources.

The global chemical company says Houston Refining is one of the largest refineries in the United States designed to process high-sulphur crude oil.

Data compiled by the US National Weather Service showed temperatures in Houston dropped 45 degrees on Thursday, from a high of 63 degrees Fahrenheit to a low of 18 degrees Fahrenheit.

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A spokesperson for the Houston-based refinery told FOX News on Friday, “Our U.S. Gulf Coast LyondellBasell sites continue to conduct detailed assessments in the wake of winter storm Elliott, but for competitive reasons, we do not provide specific details on units, their operational status, production or supply figures.”

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“Our focus remains on ensuring the health and safety of our employees and the communities where we operate. We may need to flare to ensure safe operations,” the spokesperson continued. “Flares are a safety device designed to burn off excess materials resulting from certain routine operations as well as certain non-routine situations, such as a power outage or equipment failure.”

“We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our neighbors in the community.”

First Squawk, citing sources, tweeted that Marathon Petroleum had closed its refinery in Galveston Bay while PiQ tweeted that Motiva Enterprises had idled its facilities in Port Arthur.

Marathon’s Galveston Bay refinery in Texas City, Texas has a capacity of 593,000 barrels per calendar day.

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The Port Arthur refinery has a capacity of 630,000 barrels per day.

As crude prices climb following the winter storm and rumors of refinery shutdowns, oil is up around 3.21% at $79.98 a barrel midway through the trading day. abbreviated, while oil producers like Hess, Chevron and Exxon Mobile are all hovering well in the green after posting losses for most of the week.

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