PBF Energy confirmed on Tuesday that its Delaware City Refinery an unplanned shutdown on January 24.
The refinery reported the loss of power during a severe winter storm.
Shares of PBF were down 7.9 percent in trading on Tuesday.
No injuries were reported, although toxic emissions were reported during the shutdown by the Delaware City Refinery and during a start-up a few days earlier.
The company has decided to move up its scheduled turnaround of the Delaware City coker and other related units, due to current market conditions and operational factors, a release stated.
Personnel are working to return non-affected units to reduced operations. The turnaround of the refinery is expected to be completed by the end of the quarter.
Reuters reported the outage and turnaround could lead to an increase in gasoline prices in the region since the refinery accounts for about 15 percent of East Coast production. The news service also reported that with the turnaround, the company will shift to lighter grades of crude oil and not the heavy crude that requires more processing.
A report from AAA, indicated that the price at the pump in Delaware rose a couple of cents on Wednesday when compared to Tuesday.
As a result of the change to the originally planned maintenance schedule, the company expects East Coast production to be approximately 280,000 to 300,000 barrels per day for the first quarter and 320,000 to 340,000 for the year.
Such outages are not a rarity and PBF is working to reduce its dependence on the East Coast refineries in Delaware City and Paulsboro, NJ.
The company recently completed the acquisition of a refinery near New Orleans and hopes to complete a deal to acquire a refinery in Southern California later this year. PBF has another refinery in Toledo.
Low crude oil prices have been a boon for PBF, which has switched away from higher-priced North Dakota crude oil that is brought to the refinery via rail. Its location along the Delaware River allows the plant to process crude oil from overseas or other sources.
