Europe to Shut 10 Refineries as Profits Tumble: Energy Markets

Oil refiners in Europe will shut 10 percent of their plants this decade as fuel demand falls to a 19-year low.

Of the region’s 104 facilities, 10 will shut permanently by 2020 from France to Italy to the Czech Republic, a Bloomberg survey of six European refinery executives showed. Oil consumption is headed for a fifth year of declines to the lowest level since 1994, the International Energy Agency estimates. Two-thirds of European refineries lost money in 2011, according to Essar Energy Plc, owner of the U.K.’s second-largest plant.