Everyone who has been in Commerce City at night has seen the burn off flames at the top of the Suncor refinery. Those lights have been extinguished. Last Saturday, Suncor experienced a large fire that sent two employees to the hospital. Then we had the big snow storm, which caused more damage. Due to these two incidents, the Suncor plant has been put into safe-mode, which means they will not be refining any oil until March. This is the only Oil refinery in the state.
Suncor provides about 1/3rd of the Airline fuel for DIA, and makes up about 35-40% of the Gas and Diesel market. About 95% of the production at Suncor stays in Colorado. For the next 3 months, we will have to deliver our Crude Oil out of state, refine it, and then truck it back in. Due to all that transportation, you can expect prices to go up. You should see the price hike in the next few days, so if you have half a tank, today may be a good day to top it off.
Here is Suncor’s Full Statement:
Suncor Energy provides update on Commerce City refinery
Calgary, Alberta (Dec. 28, 2022) – Suncor Energy (TSX: SU) (NYSE: SU) today provided an update
related to its Commerce City refinery.
Due to the extreme and record-setting weather impacting much of the United States, including Denver,
Colorado, Suncor’s Commerce City refinery experienced equipment damage in the days leading up to
December 24th, 2022. Consistent with our operational excellence and safe operating practice, on
December 24th it was determined that the entire facility would be shut down and put into safe mode to allow for the inspection of all units and repair of the damaged equipment. The inspection and repair of the damaged equipment is ongoing. Based on our current assessment we anticipate a progressive
restart of the facility with a return to full operations expected to be completed by late Q1 2023.
