Philadelphia Energy Solutions was formed in 2012 when local, state and federal government petitioned Carlyle Group to salvage the refinery in order to save 750-900 union jobs. Carlyle Group bought a majority share and Sunoco is still a minority owner.
PES timeline:
2012-2014 the refinery’s revival depended on bringing in cheap oil from the Bakken Shale formation in North Dakota, by rail. With Philadelphia’s expansive rail infrastructure, a relic from its industrial past, PES built out the North rail yard amidst an oil train boom in the region.
2014 -2015: PES CEO Philip Rinaldi along with other industry and business leaders push idea of an “energy hub.” The proposal revolves around building out infrastructure to divert the large amounts of cheap fracked gas “bottlenecked” in western and northeast Pennsylvania and bring them to the Philadelphia area for processing and export. Another example of this time type of project is the Mariner East 2 pipeline that would bring natural liquid gases (NGL) for export from Marcus Hook.
2015- Present: With the oil export ban reversal that Congress passed in 2015 oil trains lose their competitive advantage with the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). There is a subsequently a global drop in prices. The refinery drops its bid to go public and is now potentially teetering on bankruptcy. Infrastructure in the area is now at another pivotal transition point.
