Beacon brief: Wednesday, October 21, 2026

Phillips 66 locked out Teamsters Local 877 members at its Bayway refinery in Linden, New Jersey, and the Linden terminal at 4 p.m. on October 19, after a contract extension expired and members rejected the company's latest offer, per Hoodline; the union puts the number at 385, more than half the plant's workforce. Phillips 66 said on October 20 it would keep both sites running safely with trained personnel, per Reuters. Bayway processes about 275,000 b/d and is the East Coast's largest refinery. The union said its emergency response team members are among those locked out and warned that skeleton crews put the community at risk.^1,2

Norway's gas output averaged 298.4 million cubic meters a day in September, 6.7 percent below the Norwegian Offshore Directorate's forecast of 319.9 million, and combined oil and gas output of 3.77 million boe/d missed forecast by 4 percent, per Reuters. The Directorate's preliminary figures put gas sales at 9.0 billion standard cubic meters, 1.6 billion less than in August. Oil came in at 1.73 million b/d, 0.7 percent above forecast. Output across Norway's roughly 100 offshore fields varies month to month with maintenance and other stoppages, per Reuters; the Directorate gave no reason for the gas shortfall.^3,4

Taiwan's state refiner CPC bought six Aframax cargoes last week instead of its usual two or three VLCCs a month, and SK Energy chartered an Aframax for $23 million to load US crude in early November, per Reuters. ADNOC sold cargoes for the next two months on a delivered basis to China and India, and Saudi Aramco sold delivered cargoes to Asian buyers for next month, absorbing the shipping cost. Vitol's head of Asia said about 80 VLCCs are tied up shuttling through the Strait of Hormuz and put the cost of moving US crude to Asia at $40 a barrel. North Sea Dated Brent premiums hit records above $20 a barrel last week, while some West African differentials fell to minus $20. Kpler counted at least 18 vessels attacked in the Gulf over two weeks, per Reuters.^5,7

Shell, BP and TotalEnergies expect third-quarter refining margins three to four times year-earlier levels, with Shell guiding to a record $42 a barrel, per Reuters. TotalEnergies expects refining and chemicals cash flow to roughly double from the prior quarter to about $4 billion. HSBC expects Shell to raise its quarterly buyback to $3.5 billion, while its analysts see no BP buyback resumption before 2028 and stable capex; BP has a strategy update on December 15. Chevron and Exxon have used windfall cash to pay down debt so far, and results are due October 29 and 30.⁶