The Philadelphia refinery hit by explosions and fire last week will soon be closed, according to the company that owns the 1,400-acre site.
It also means 1,000 employees will lose their jobs at the plant run by Philadelphia Energy Solutions. Reports suggested that the scramble to purchase the site for reuse is already underway.
The riverfront property not only contains fuel storage facilities but a rail unloading operation, pipeline interconnections and a link to the seaport. Commercial speculators say it could mean new life for the area.
PES officials told Mayor Jim Kenney that they planned to shut down the refinery within the next month. “I’m extremely disappointed for the more than one thousand workers who will be immediately impacted by this closure, as well as other businesses that are dependent on the refinery operations,” Kenney said in a statement.Closing the refinery would have a huge impact on the Philadelphia economy and on regional fuel markets. The 335,000-barrel-a-day refinery, the largest on the East Coast, employs more than 1,000 people directly, including nearly 700 hourly union workers, and thousands of contractors. The plant has long been a thorn in the side of environmentalists and neighbors who say it is a health risk.
