Refiners seek innovative tools for risk management

Old dogs, new tricks

Recent times have been extremely tough for the refining sector worldwide. Europe’s largest independent refiner, Petroplus, filed for bankruptcy in January, brought down by a combination of weak margins, high crude prices and tight credit. In the US, refiners on the east and west coasts – which lack access to the cheap oil from the mid-continent, and must pay lofty Brent-linked prices for their crude – face a similar crunch. Three refineries in the Philadelphia area, owned by Sunoco and