U.S. Oil Refiners Boost Maintenance as Gasoline Demand Soars

May 17, 2022--Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Strong demand for gasoline and diesel has significantly increased refiners' revenue, earnings and margins, or crack spreads. Refiners now have plenty of cash to perform maintenance, and they have been spending it to ensure their plants have a high utilization rate during the traditional summer driving season, which is between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Data tracked by IIR Energy showed refinery maintenance spending for the second quarter of 2020 fell to $354 million, well under comparable year-earlier data for 2019 and 2018. But as the nation started emerging from the economic lockdowns in late 2021, and accelerating in 2022, refinery maintenance spending jumped. Estimated maintenance spending in the current quarter is projected to exceed comparable pre-COVID-19 levels.

"Performing scheduled maintenance on refineries means they are less likely to face unscheduled outages when they run at high levels of utilization, like during the summer," Copello said. "That means there should be no problem with transportation fuels on the supply side this summer."