AM-95-05 SURVIVABILITY - A 1995 UPDATE

Description:

Many refining industry participants and observers began raising the issue of refinery closures as the decade of the nineties unfolded. An industry which had experienced many years of low or nonexistent returns and unpredictably volatile earnings was suddenly confronted with the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (Exhibit 1). Compliance with these new regulations would place an unprecedented strain on a refiner’s resources; estimated capital expenditures required were exceedingly high ancl the administrative burden of reporting, monitoring, and documenting was equally onerous. All classes of refinery owners were forced to scrutinize their assets, selecting those in which to make the needed investments, and identifying others as expendable.