Good News for U.S. Refiners: Margins Widen on Forecast Increase in Demand

SUGAR LAND--April 6, 2010--Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The long-suffering U.S. Petroleum Refining Industry has some good news: refining margins have widened considerably in recent months. That, plus the normal summer increase in demand, is causing refiners to start dusting off long-delayed capital and maintenance spending plans, according to Chris Paschall, Industrial Info's vice president of research for the Oil & Gas Industry. Recent announcements of permanent refinery closures by Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO) (San Antonio, Texas), Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) , and Total SA (NYSE:TOT) (Paris, France) are being offset by refinery expansions that have been completed or announced. Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE:MRO) (Houston, Texas) recently completed a $3.9 billion expansion of its refinery in Garyville, Louisiana.