U.S. Petroleum Refiners Gear Up for Second-Quarter Maintenance

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--As the U.S. summer driving season looms, petroleum refineries across the nation are preparing for annual maintenance. Energy markets are indicating gasoline prices will be lower when compared with previous summers, and refiners will be mindful of consumers who find it less costly to fill their tanks. Industrial Info is tracking nearly 50 maintenance-related projects in the U.S. Petroleum Refining Industry that are set to kick off in the second quarter, the bulk of which are set to commence before the end of April.

Click on the image at right for a graph detailing maintenance projects at U.S. refineries scheduled to begin from April through June, by parent company.

Planned work in the U.S. is expected to reduce crude throughput at refineries by an average of 256,000 barrels per day (BBL/d) in the second quarter, compared with 494,000 BBL/d for the same period last year, according to IIR's refinery capacity insights.

The heaviest investments in turnarounds for the current quarter come from CITGO Petroleum Corporation (Houston, Texas), whose parent company is PDV Holding (Houston), currently a subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) (Caracas). CITGO is planning maintenance for units at all three of its U.S.-based petroleum-refining complexes: fluid catalytic-cracking (FCCU) and sulfuric alkylation (SF alky) units at its refinery in Lemont, Illinois; a delayed coker unit at its Lake Charles Refinery in Westlake, Louisiana; refined storage tanks at its West Plant in Corpus Christi, Texas; and crude and refined storage tanks at its East Plant in Corpus Christi.

The Illinois and Louisiana projects are expected to wrap up in the coming months, but the Texas tank maintenance projects are expected to run through November. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Petroleum Refining Project Database can read detailed reports on the Illinois, Louisiana, Corpus Christi West and Corpus Christi East projects.

PDV Holding operates pipelines, terminals and other facilities across the U.S., in addition to its three refineries. PDVSA has been trying to sell its majority ownership of PDV for the past few years to a U.S.-based entity, in an effort to pay off debts and claims against PDVSA and the Venezuelan government. An affiliate of Elliott Investment Management (New York, New York) was named the presumptive winner in a U.S. court auction of shares last September, but a U.S. judge reset the bidding process earlier this year to allow for "other parties that might be interested in participating." Any proposal would have to top the $7.3 billion bid made by an affiliate of Elliott earlier this year, according to Bloomberg.

Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Plant Database can click here for a full list of refineries, pipelines and terminals across the U.S. owned by CITGO.

Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:MPC) (Findlay, Ohio) leads among U.S.-based refiners in second-quarter maintenance kickoffs. The company is preparing for a series of maintenance programs designed to improve storage tank farms at several key refineries, all of which are slated to run through the fourth quarter:

its refinery in Anacortes, Washington, about 45 miles south of the Canadian border; see project report
• its refinery in Detroit, Michigan; see project report
• its Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas; see project report
• its Texas City Refinery in Texas City, Texas; see project report
• its Los Angeles Refinery in Carson, California; see project report

HF Sinclair Corporation (NYSE:DINO) (Dallas, Texas), which operates refineries across the U.S. West and Great Plains, accounts for only two turnarounds, but one carries a heavy price tag: the company's refinery in Sinclair, Wyoming, which includes normal inspections and repairs to FCCU, SF alky, reformer, gas-oil hydrotreater and other units, expected to wrap up by the end of the second quarter. HF Sinclair also aims to improve a storage tank farm at its refinery in Woods Cross, Utah, through a program running into November. Subscribers can read detailed reports on the Wyoming and Utah projects.

In a recent quarterly earnings-related conference call, Valerie Pompa, the executive vice president of operations at HF Sinclair, said the company is upgrading the technology used in the turnaround process to streamline maintenance at its facilities: "We are using several digital programs to drive predictive asset intelligence and optimize our plants. These models are changing the way we work, and we are starting to see those strategies play out in our maintenance costs and our operating costs overall this year."

Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Project and Plant databases can click here for a full list of detailed reports for projects mentioned in this article, and click here for a full list of related plant profiles.

Subscribers can click here for a full list of maintenance-related projects in the U.S. Petroleum Refining Industry that are set to kick off in the second quarter.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).