2026

Jan 5 (Reuters) – U.S. refiner Phillips 66 said on Monday it had agreed to acquire the assets and infrastructure of Lindsey Oil Refinery in northern England following the site’s liquidation, and will integrate the key facilities into its Humber Refinery.

The Lindsey refinery closed in July last year after previous owner Prax fell into insolvency, putting the 420 jobs at the site at risk. 

Phillips 66, which did not disclose a deal value, said that after a detailed review during the bidding process, it had decided not to restart standalone operations at the refinery as the site is unviable in its current form. 

Storage and infrastructure assets from Lindsey will be integrated into the Humber Refinery complex, which will improve supply flexibility and support traditional and renewable fuel production, Phillips 66 said. 

“In the coming months, we will deepen our understanding of the new assets and develop strategic plans for their integration into the Phillips 66 Limited portfolio following completion of the transaction,” a Phillips 66 spokesperson said. 

The announcement follows a bidding process managed by FTI Consulting, which was appointed as special manager of the Lindsey oil refinery assets after the official receiver was named liquidator in June.

None of the bids that were credibly put forward had proposed a return to refining operations at Lindsey in the next few years, the official receiver said. 

The remaining 250 staff at the site are guaranteed employment until the end of March, the official receiver said in November, after redundancies began last September. 

“We are purchasing the assets of the Prax companies in liquidation and not the companies.  While we understand the impact on Prax employees, at this stage we cannot guarantee how many new roles will be created,” the Phillips 66 spokesperson added.

UK Energy Minister Michael Shanks said in a statement: “This will expand the company’s ability to supply fuel to UK customers, boosting domestic energy security and securing jobs – including hundreds of new construction jobs over the next five years.” 

The UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero did not immediately respond to a request for follow-up comment on how the deal might impact UK fuel supply, and the status of the remaining jobs after March. 

“Lindsey oil refinery is a critical piece of UK energy infrastructure. Phillips 66 should not be allowed to just mothball the site and turn it into a glorified storage tank,” said Unite union general secretary Sharon Graham. 

(Reporting by Pranav Mathur in Bengaluru, Robert Harvey, Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Shreya Biswas and Jan Harvey)

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By Florence Tan

SINGAPORE, Jan 5 (Reuters) – Oil prices inched up on Monday as investors weighed whether political upheaval in OPEC member Venezuela would disrupt shipments after U.S. President Donald Trump seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, in a well supplied market.

Brent crude futures rose 17 cents to $60.92 a barrel by 0024 GMT, paring earlier losses, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $57.43 a barrel, up 11 cents.

The United States snatched Maduro from Caracas at the weekend. Trump said Washington would take control of the oil-producing nation and that the U.S. embargo on all Venezuelan oil remained in full effect.

The U.S. strike on Venezuela to extract the country’s president inflicted no damage on the country’s oil production and refining industry, two sources with knowledge of operations at state oil company PDVSA said at the weekend.

In a global market with plentiful oil supply, analysts said any further disruption to Venezuela’s exports would have little immediate impact on prices.

“We see ambiguous but modest risks to oil prices in the short-run from Venezuela depending on how U.S. sanctions policy evolves,” Goldman Sachs analysts led by Daan Struyven said in a January 4 note, keeping its 2026 oil price forecasts unchanged.

Helima Croft, RBC Capital’s head of commodities research, said: “Certainly, we think full sanctions relief could unlock several hundred kb/d of production over a 12-month period in an orderly transition situation.”

“However, all bets are off in a chaotic change of power scenario like what occurred in Libya or Iraq,” she added.

A top Venezuelan official declared on Sunday that the country’s government would stay unified behind Maduro.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies, together called OPEC+, decided to hold their output on Sunday.

Analysts are also watching Iran’s reaction after Trump threatened on Friday to intervene in a crackdown on protests in the OPEC producer, ratcheting up geopolitical tensions.

At least 16 people have been killed during a week of unrest in Iran, rights groups said on Sunday, as protests over soaring inflation spread across the country.

(Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Jamie Freed and Sonali Paul)

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