China Is Set to Eclipse America as World’s Biggest Oil Refiner

China Is Set to Eclipse America as World’s Biggest Oil Refiner

Photographer: Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images









Photographer: Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images





Earlier this month, Royal Dutch Shell Plc pulled the plug on its Convent refinery in Louisiana. Unlike many oil refineries shut in recent years, Convent was far from obsolete: it's fairly big by U.S. standards and sophisticated enough to turn a wide range of crude oils into high-value fuels. Yet Shell, the world's third-biggest oil major, wanted to radically reduce refining capacity and couldn't find a buyer.As Convent's 700 workers found out they were out of a job, their counterparts on the other side of