Illinois oil refinery suffers power loss

Marathon Oil Corp. was working to bring its Robinson, Illinois, refinery back online after a power outage caused by severe weather forced the plant to shut down late yesterday, said Shane Pochard, a company spokesman.

“Power is being restored, and refinery employees are working to return operations to normal,” Pochard, based in Findlay, Ohio, said in an e-mail today.

Flaring associated with the malfunction was ongoing, according to the filing with the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.

Outages can increase prices for refined products as companies turn to spot markets to help them meet supply contracts. Operational disruptions can also depress prices for crude oil as less feedstock is used.

The 215,000-barrel-a-day refinery, which is located in southeastern Illinois, processes sweet and sour crudes, according to a company filing. The plant delivers refined products to terminals in Chicago via the Wabash pipeline system.