Credit: Gunvor, Rotterdam refinery

By Jack Wittels and Alex Longley, November 22, 2024, Bloomberg

Gunvor Group is temporarily halting its Rotterdam oil refinery because it’s not making enough money, the latest sign that the continent’s plants are struggling to compete with upstarts in other parts of the world.

Effective Nov. 25, the so-called economic halt is due to a lack of prompt availability of commercially viable feedstock, the company said in a statement. Gunvor said it will “continue to monitor the situation and assess future resupply for the refinery in due course.”

With a processing capacity of 75,000 barrels a day, the plant is relatively tiny. Still, it joins a growing list of European refineries with plans to either halt or downsize, including the Wesseling and Gelsenkirchen plants in Germany and the Grangemouth facility in Scotland.

Europe’s refineries are under pressure from large, new plants, including in the Middle East and Africa, such as Nigeria’s giant new Dangote refinery. The rival fuelmakers can send what they make to Europe, and also compete for market share elsewhere in the world.

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