CITGO to Ship Midwest Gasoline to New York via Buckeye's New Laurel Pipeline Service

CITGO Petroleum will move gasoline from its Lemont Refinery in Illinois to New York customers in early October, the first shipment on Buckeye Partners' new bi-directional service along the Laurel Pipeline. The route creates an additional outlet for Midwest-refined products into East Coast markets, giving CITGO more flexibility to respond to regional differences in fuel demand, inventories and pricing. CITGO said the shipment leverages the Lemont refinery's access to major transportation and pipeline infrastructure near Chicago, one of the largest U.S. refining and distribution hubs. Buckeye's bi-directional Laurel Pipeline service offers suppliers another option for moving fuel to the Northeast. The East Coast relies heavily on Gulf Coast refineries, imports and other domestic regions after local refining capacity declined over two decades. CITGO operates three U.S. refineries — in Lemont; Lake Charles, Louisiana; and Corpus Christi, Texas — with combined crude processing capacity of about 829,000 barrels per day. It also owns or jointly owns 43 active terminals and eight pipelines, supplying roughly 4,000 independently operated branded retail locations.