I think the deciding factor was the lack of economies of scale with the Burnaby Refinery at 55,000 barrels/day. - en.wikipedia.org
Compare that to some of Chevron's other refineries: the Richmond, California Refinery 240,000 barrels/ day, Pascagoula, Mississippi 330,000 barrels/day, or Yeosu, South Korea 800,000 barrels/day.
It's the same reason Chevron sold off the Everett, Washington refinery. The markets for Everett and Burnaby aren't large enough to consume the volume of a larger efficient refinery.
.
The cost per barrel of capacity to build, rebuild and operate a refinery 10x larger is perhaps 22% of a refinery 10% of the size. Costs per barrel are at least 75% less.
Chevron's strategy to deal with a shrinking market in response to global warming is to be the least-cost producer. As the market shrinks, the more costly producers will fall away. |
