US Autumn Refinery Maintenance Heavier Than Expected

The traditional autumn refinery maintenance is shaping up to be heavier than expected, according to Bloomberg, as a greater number of refiners shut units for work.

• As of this week, Autumn 2023 work is expected to take a total of about 2.05m bbl of crude capacity offline from Sept. 1 through December, compared with 2.21m bbl during the same period in 2022, according to Energy Aspects.
• However, the 2023 figures are incomplete as further works could be announced during the period. In contrast, 2022’s data is based on what was known by the end of the maintenance period.
• For 2023, an average of 429k b/d of US processing capacity will be offline for planned work in September, 1.17m b/d in October, 452k b/d in November and nothing in December.
• The actual outages could surge if more work is added or unplanned shutdowns occur from unit upsets, power glitches or shutdowns due to storms, Bloomberg said.