Pilipinas Shell Announces Permanent Closure of its Tabangao Refinery

Phillippine oil giant Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. has decided to permanently shut operations at its 110,000 bpd Tabangao refinery. The decision has been taken considering the impact of COVID-19 on the global oil demand-supply imbalance and seems to be the company’s strategy towards optimizing its current assets to the fullest when the world has headed towards an economic fallout. Philipinas Shell registered a net loss of USD 0.14 billion in the first half of the year and has recorded a Q-o-Q loss of almost 75% in the earnings during the quarter ending June. As per the company’s statement on the downturn, the entire Tabangao unit will be transformed to an import terminal thereby strategically shifting its supply chain strategy from manufacturing to completely import driven.