Chevron invites bids for UK refinery

CHEVRON is "soliciting bids" for its Pembroke refinery in Wales, UK, as part of a plan to concentrate its downstream activities in north America and Asia-Pacific. "Downstream market conditions are likely to be difficult for the next several years," Mike Wirth, the firm's executive vice-president responsible for refining, said last month. Chevron's decision to sell the refinery took the business by surprise. Although Pembroke is the firm's only refinery in Europe, it operates the facility as an extension of its north American refining operation and uses it to supply large volumes of gasoline across the Atlantic. The firm's data show that in 2007 and 2008 it operated virtually at capacity. Th