U.S. Energy Information Administration said last week the nation’s refinery fleet has operated at higher-than-normal rates this year. Rates between May and September of refinery utilization averaged more than 95 percent of capacity – the highest for those months since 1998. EIA said Oct. 22, “Tight global product supplies this year have boosted margins for petroleum products, particularly for diesel, incentivizing the increased run rates.” Since 1991 U.S. refinery utilization has averaged 92 percent from May to September – compared to 88 percent across the other seven months.
EIA said for the week ending Oct. 16 refinery utilization was 93.4 percent of capacity – about 5.9 percent higher than the five-year average for the same week. Gulf Coast led the regional utilization rates with 95.9 percent.
EIA said U.S. currently has about 130 operable petroleum refineries with total capacity of about 18.2 million barrels per day.
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