US oil refining capacity falls for third time

Steel long pipes in crude oil factory during sunset U.S. crude oil refining capacity fell 4% to 17.53 million barrels per day (bpd) this year, a government report showed on Friday amid plant closures and conversions to biofuels.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) said the figures reflect capacity online as of Jan. 1, and the drop came despite the startup last year of a major expansion to Exxon Mobil’s Beaumont, Texas, refinery.

Oil processing capacity at the start of 2024 was more than a million barrels below the 2019 peak of 18.98 million bpd, which came before a wave of plant closures and conversions during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Refiners process crude oil into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other products.

Marathon Petroleum Corp remained the largest refiner in the United States, able to process up to 2.95 million bpd, or 16.8% of the country’s total, at its 13 U.S. plants, the EIA report showed.

Valero Energy Corp (VLO.N) was the second-largest U.S. refiner by volume with its 2.21 million bpd capacity equal to about 12.6% of the total.29dk2902l

Exxon was third largest with nearly 1.95 million bpd after a $2 billion expansion to its Beaumont, Texas, facility came online in spring, 2023, raising that facility’s processing capacity to 609,000 bpd.