U.S. refinery capacity rises 1.9% (6/29/2016)

U.S. operable atmospheric crude distillation capacity as of January 1, 2016 was 1.9% higher than at the beginning of 2015, reaching 18.3 million barrels per calendar day (b/cd) according to EIA's recently released annual Refinery Capacity Report (Figure 1). This is the largest increase in operable capacity since the 2.9% increase as of January 1, 2013 over the start of 2012 that resulted from the restart of East Coast refineries that had closed in 2011. The capacities of secondary units that support heavy crude processing and production of ultra-low sulfur diesel and gasoline, including thermal cracking (coking), catalytic hydrocracking, and hydrotreating/desulfurization, also increased slightly. ... More »