Philadelphia Energy Solutions Files for Bankruptcy after Refinery Fire

Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the company said on Monday, its second such filing in less than two years, after a fire last month prompted it to close the largest refinery on the U.S. East Coast.

The agreement “provides additional financing and liquidity necessary to ensure we can safely wind down our refining operations and… best position the company for a successful reorganization, the rebuilding of our damaged infrastructure, and a restart of our refining operations,” Mark Smith, chief executive officer of PES Energy, said in a statement.

“The success of our plan is critical to energy supply and security for the region, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the City of Philadelphia,” Smith said.

The company has multiple owners, including investment bank Credit Suisse and investment firm Bardin Hill, and has both assets and liabilities between $1 billion and $10 billion, a filing made in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware showed.

The company began selling the refinery’s oil supplies and equipment announcing it would seek to permanently shut the plant, sources have told Reuters.

The asset sell-off triggered worries among workers that the company no longer aimed to find a buyer willing to restart the plant, as it had said it would do.

More than 600 union refinery workers will be laid off on August 25. Others were let go shortly after the fire.

Hundreds of contractors that do business with the refinery are also expected to be affected by the shutdown.

Reporting by Laila Kearney in New York, Jarrett Renshaw in Philadelphia and Akshay Balan in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio