Provided LyondellBasell
LyondellBasell’s Houston, Texas, refinery is among North America’s largest full-conversion refineries capable of processing significant quantities of heavy, high-sulfur crude oil.
LyondellBasell Industries has revealed it will lay off more than 300 employees from its shuttering Houston petroleum refinery.
The news comes a little more than a month after the Houston-based international chemical company announced it would be closing the refinery. The layoffs were first reported by Reuters, which cited a filing with the Texas Workforce Commission.
According to the filing, LyondellBasell will be laying off approximately 345 employees beginning around mid-April. LydonellBasell told the Texas Workforce Commission that the layoffs were due to the Houston refinery “permanently ceasing its entire oil refining processes.”
LyondellBasell said Thursday it had no further information to share beyond what was said during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Jan. 31, when it was mentioned that the capital provided by the closure will be put toward other investments.
According to the company’s website, the Houston refinery was the first to open along the Houston Ship Channel when it began operations in 1918. The 700-acre site employed approximately 1,200 workers and contractors as of January and mainly produces gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and lube oils. LyondellBasell claims that as of 2018, the refinery had an overall economic impact of $811 million.
The company had originally planned to exit the refining business and close the Houston location in 2023 but ultimately delayed the closure until the first quarter of 2025. According to a May 2023 news release from LyondellBasell, the company planned to close the refinery to transition into a “profitable circular and low carbon solutions business.”