Exxon Outage Sets Diesel Records

Exxon’s Joliet refinery suffered a sudden power outage and flooding that forced a full shutdown, slashing a major source of diesel and gasoline for the Midwest. With the plant offline for days, diesel prices hit record highs — over $6.50 a gallon in some Great Lakes states — as thin inventories and high demand left truckers, farmers, and builders scrambling. Each day lost at Joliet tightens the market, and with no clear restart date, the pressure is mounting fast.

But here’s the catch: as the refinery crisis unfolds, Exxon is quietly making a bold upstream play, negotiating a return to Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt almost two decades after being pushed out. The deal could secure heavy crude supplies that fit Exxon’s refining system, but political and legal risks are real — Venezuela’s history of expropriation and unstable contracts looms large. Meanwhile, a Dallas federal judge just handed Exxon a tax win on its Qatar gas partnership, freeing up cash and giving it more flexibility to weather market shocks, fund buybacks, and seize new opportunities.

Based on reporting from WSJ and Reuters, this episode unpacks the high-wire act Exxon is pulling: stabilizing its Midwest operations while making complex moves abroad — all against a backdrop of volatile prices and hidden risks in the oil supply chain.

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