The three terminals had previously received fuel from the now-shut Trainer refinery. The Trainer refinery slowed to a standstill during the last weekend of September after running down its crude inventory. ConocoPhillips had said that the three terminals would shut down rack supplies soon after the refinery closed.   
The spokeswoman declined to provide an exact timetable for the closure of the three rack terminals. ConocoPhillips will idle its Philadelphia G Street oil terminal, a second terminal at Chelsea, Pa., a Woodbury, N.J., tank farm and east line pipeline. The oil major is looking for buyers for those midstream and refining assets.   Industry sources in the Mid-Atlantic said on Thursday that ConocoPhillips is continuing to supply fuel at those rack terminals for the time being via supply exchange deals with some players.   
The exchange business strategy is to capture the high price premium for prompt supplies in the Northeast amid tight supplies and take advantage of the steep price backwardation. ConocoPhillips will pay back for the supplies later at a cheaper price. However, this lucrative window of opportunity may not stay open for too long as more incremental arbitrage resupplies are expected to arrive from Europe at the end of October and early November. Also, Northeast and Canadian refineries are to return to normal operations after turnarounds and outages.   
Meanwhile, the short notice of impending terminal closures caused some confusion among rack customers in the affected markets.   While ConocoPhillips rack customers have to scramble for supplies from alternative sellers, the repercussion on ConocoPhillips is limited as rack buyers were sold supplies on a month-to-month basis. There were no long-term supply contracts at those soon-to-be-shut terminals. Sunoco, a large rack player in the Philly area, is expected to pick up the supply shortfall. PBF’s Delaware City refinery is also expected to step up to cater to the extra rack demand in the Philly area.   
Although ConocoPhillips is shutting its refinery and terminals in the Mid- Atlantic, it does not mean the oil refiner is pulling out of that regional rack products markets. ConocoPhillips is seen in the market securing products supplies at rack terminals in the same area that can be supplied by pipeline or barges. The aim is to keep up the rack sales volumes and maintain a market share.