The Ultimate Airline Fuel Hedge: Buy A Refinery?

As has been well reported elsewhere, Delta Airlines is rumored to be in negotiations to buy ConocoPhillips' Trainer, Pennsylvania refinery in order to better manage the airline's exposure to volatile jet fuel prices. 

Our thoughts on the story are pretty similar to everyone else who is questioning the idea, including Tom Kloza of OPIS, who had a pretty entertaining quote in the NY Times article, “It's a little like a rabbi buying a church". 

If you're not familiar with the story, here are a few links:

Delta Air mulls bold bid for Penn. oil refinery - Reuters

Delta Air Could Buy Conoco's Trainer Refinery For $100M-$150 Mln - Wall Street Journal

Refinery Gets a Look From Delta, Perplexing Analysts - NY Times

Delta linked to bidding for oil refinery - Atlanta Constitution-Journal

Have you heard the one about the airline that buys a refinery? - Houston Chronicle

The Glue in Delta’s Possible Refinery Deal: JP Morgan - CNBC

Possible Delta Air Lines Refinery Acquisition Raises Eyebrows - Energy Risk

When the story first broke, we asked several airline executives for their thoughts and all of them thought the story had to be some sort of joke.

Nevertheless, we'll applaud Delta for attempting to think outside of the box but, it's hard to imagine that their shareholders will agree that this is a sound business or risk management decision.