⁍ European and U.S. oil refineries face a wave of closures due to plateauing fuel demand, tightening environmental rules and overseas competition.

---

⁍ The shock of the coronavirus epidemic crushed global oil demand.

---

⁍ Some producers, including BP, say it might never recover to pre-crisis levels.

---

– Oil companies are planning to close oil refineries—some of them more than 70 years old—in an effort to cut costs and shift toward cleaner fuels, Reuters reports. The International Energy Agency predicts that by 2030, 14% of current refining capacity in advanced economies “faces the risk of lower utilisation or closure,” and that share could grow to 50% in 2040 under a more aggressive transition away from fossil fuels to electric vehicles. Shutting down refineries, some of which are 70 years old, is a costly process which requires dismantling heavy equipment and pipelines and remediating the land. So owners are choosing alternative paths, including converting refinery sites to import terminals, putting them to other industrial uses, or, in many cases, switching to cleaner biofuels by processing vegetable oil and waste oils. BP, Total, and Eni, outlined in recent months plans to grow their biofuel capacities by two to fivefold by 2030 while reducing their global oil refining footprints. The switch is part of companies’ strategies to radically reshape and grow renewables and low-carbon businesses. “It allows plans to play a role in the energy transition, creates long-term value, and mitigates the costs of a full shutdown and site cleanup,” one energy analyst says.