U.S. & Canadian Petroleum Refining Industry 2006 Maintenance Spending Up 45%

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). Maintenance turnarounds are an ever-hungry beast that devour dollar after dollar, year in and year out within the United States & Canadian Petroleum Refining Industry. However, this beast must be fed annually in order to keep the refineries that serve as all-you-can-eat buffets, operating at peak efficiency and capacity. During many of the recent lean years, the pickings in the buffet line were slim as Petroleum Refiners performed scaled-down maintenance turnarounds, doing just what was necessary to keep product flowing. However, now that the price of oil has reached, and is staying at, record high prices, Petroleum Refiners are expanding their annual maintenance turnarounds, doing everything that needs be done to return the facility to peak performance. To that end, proposed maintenance spending is up by 45% in 2006, to $1.3 billion and the number of overall turnarounds planned is up by 21%.

The most maintenance turnaround activity in 2006 is, naturally, within the region that plays host to the most and largest refineries on the continent, the Southwest region of the U.S. To date, within the Southwest region, petroleum refineries have begun, or will begin during 2006, 40 maintenance turnarounds worth over $550 million, almost a $200 million increase over 2005’s year-end maintenance spending numbers for the region.

Click on the image at right to view a chart comparing 2005 vs. 2006 turnaround spending by market region.

There is a significant drop off in overall maintenance spending after the Southwest region with the Northeast region of the U.S. coming in a distant second at seven turnarounds worth $154 million. In third place for 2006, is the West Coast region with seven turnarounds worth $134 million, and rounding out the top five we have the Southeast region and Great Lakes region with five turnarounds worth $103 million and seven turnarounds worth $83 million, respectively.

Some of the largest maintenance turnarounds scheduled to begin this year are the proposed $54 million turnaround scheduled for the fourth quarter in California by BP, a $50 million turnaround currently underway with ConocoPhillips in Pennsylvania, a $30 million turnaround planned for the fourth quarter by Chalmette Refining, LLC in Louisiana, and a $30 million turnaround that was completed during the first quarter this year with ExxonMobil Corporation in Texas.

Each year, maintenance turnarounds are a key element to keeping the Petroleum Refining Industry operating within the U.S. and Canada. With oil prices being what they are, refiners are now able to do all the maintenance necessary to keep their product flowing at peak capacity and efficiency. Couple these maintenance expenditures with the recent massive increases in planned capital projects and you have a very bright future looming on the horizon for the industry as a whole.

Industrial Info provides Petroleum Refinery Unit Turnaround Tracking for North and South American refineries and expanding globally. Contact Member Center at 1-800-762-3361 for details.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a Marketing Information Service company that has been doing business for over 23 years. IIR is respected as the leader in providing comprehensive market intelligence pertaining to the industrial processing, heavy manufacturing, and energy-related industries throughout the world.