US Refining Capacity Declines Amid Uncertain Fuel Demand Outlook

(Bloomberg) – The operating capacity of the US refinery was hugged lower in 2024 as an uncertain perspective for gasoline and diesel.

According to an Energy Information Management Report that gives an image of the industry as of January 1 each year, 43,000 barrels per day in 2024 and 43,000 barrels per day in 2024, contract with the American refinery fleet.

The US refined capacity has shook between expansion and contraction in the last five years. In 2020, the Pandemic -guided demand decrease has started a US refinery closing for the first time since 2014, with a US refinery with a country under 18 million barrels. Since then, Exxonmobil Corp., Valero Energy Corp, Marathon Petroleum and Citgo has undertaken large expansion projects that highlight capacity. Now, fuel production is once again in the fall.

Since January, Lyondellbasell Industries NV’s 264,000 barrels of NV have stopped permanently and Phillips 66 will close the 139,000 barrel Los Angeles facility at the end of this year. In the beginning of 2026, Valero will close the 145,000 barrels of Benicia refinery in the Gulf Region of California, which continues to tend to be smaller, logistically and financially challenging US refineries.

These two California refinery cover can push the US’s fuel capacity back to approximately 17.8 million barrels per day to low levels.

Although smaller refineries were closed, mega plants on the Gulf Coast have increased capacity and made less complex facilities competitive. Port Arthur, Motiva Refinery in Texas reached 641,000 barrels per day in 2024, and according to the EIA annual report, the Marathon’s nearby 631,000 barrels passed through the Galveston Bay Factory.

Motiva, a Saudi Aramco, continues to increase the capacity at the Texas facility, which is the only refinery in the United States, and in December, 651,000 barrels of oil per day.

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