Planetark.com: EPA expects to wrap Shell Bakersfield talks this month: “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency expects to conclude an agreement this month to keep Shell Oil Co.'s 70,000 barrel per day refinery in Bakersfield, California, open past the end of the year…” (ShellNews.net)

USA: October 11, 2004

HOUSTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency expects to conclude an agreement this month to keep Shell Oil Co.'s 70,000 barrel per day refinery in Bakersfield, California, open past the end of the year, an agency spokeswoman said last week.  

Shell in mid-August said it would keep the central California refinery open until March if it could work out an accord with the EPA on company-wide emission levels, which Shell agreed to lower in a 2001 pact with the EPA.

"We're actively in discussions; it's an effort to accommodate the state's desire to keep Bakersfield open," said EPA spokeswoman Lisa Fasano. "We expect we will be wrapping it up by the end of the month, if not sooner."

California officials pressured Shell to keep running the refinery that provides 2 percent of gasoline and 6 percent of diesel to California drivers, who pay the highest motor fuels prices in the United States.

"We're not going to operate it past the end of the year if we can't get approval from the EPA," said Shell spokesman Stan Mays.

Shell is in talks with several possible refinery buyers.

Part of Shell's plan to meet the EPA emission levels was to close the Bakersfield refinery on Oct. 1.

Shell is the North American arm of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies (RD.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) (SHEL.L: Quote, Profile, Research) .

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