BP Shuts Whiting Refinery Due To Transformer Failure, Sparks Fuel Supply Fears: Report

On Thursday, BP PLC BP reportedly evacuated its 435,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Whiting, Indiana, hydrocarbons refinery following a transformer failure. 

The transformer failure, which occurred at midday, was owing to a plant-wide power outage, which led to an evacuation of all but the most essential workers, as per Reuters.

BP said the refinery shut down following an apparent power outage, which forced employees to evacuate office buildings.

“We have activated our emergency response team,” the company said, as per the report. While a refinery as large as Whiting could resume operations within a week, restart times can differ widely following power outages, the report cited John Auers, managing director of Refined Fuels Analytics.

Notably, earlier in August 2022, the Whiting refinery was shut by a fire in a single electrical line that also knocked out the plant’s cooling water supply, and the factory restarted after a week and a half.

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As per the report, the refinery outage news pushed up gasoline and diesel prices in the area on fears of tighter supply and lowered Canadian crude prices on worries of weak demand.

Reuters stated that Western Canadian Select (WCS) for March delivery, which stood at $18.10 a barrel under West Texas Intermediate (WTI) on Wednesday, was sold off on the Whiting news and settled at $19.00 a barrel under WTI, according to brokerage CalRock.

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Price Action: BP shares are trading lower by 0.51% at $34.95 premarket on the last check Friday.