Delta Trainer refinery rates reduced by half: Update

Adds more company comment.

Delta Air Lines has reduced throughput rates by half at its 185,000 b/d refinery in Trainer, Pennsylvania, the company said today.

"We are operating at about, just a little over half of where we were, and blending all of that jet fuel into diesel," chief financial officer Paul Jacobson said on a quarterly earnings call.

The refinery would lose money in the second quarter, he added.

Delta acquired the refinery in 2012, in part as a hedge against rising jet fuel prices. The airline would re-evaluate the refinery along with its broader business as it seeks to withstand a 90pc drop in travel demand smothered by the Covid-19 pandemic response, Jacobson said.

"It remains an important part of our overall fuel strategy," Jacobson said. "But that is obviously somewhat muted in the current environment today."

By Elliott Blackburn