US Refiners To Run At 95% In Summer, Despite Heat

US refiners will run their plants at up to 95% for the remainder of Q3 at around 17.9m b/dm despite extreme summer heat, according to Reuters.

• Marathon Petroleum, the US’ largest refiner with 16% of US throughput, aims to run at 94% of its combined 2.9m b/d capacity in Q3, while the second-largest Valero targets 95% of its 3m b/d capacity.
• The refining industry has been running at above 90% capacity for over a year to meet strong diesel and gasoline demand and capitalize on stronger crack spreads.
• The US gasoline crack was down -0.5$/bbl on the day at 38.51$/bbl, while the US ULSD crack down -0.3$/bbl at 50.33$/bbl
• Meanwhile, stockpiles of gasoline and distillates fell sharply last week and were respectively 7% and 17% below the five-year average for this time of year.
• A possible disruption to refiner’s targets could be the extreme heat and onset of hurricane season. Much of the processing load will be carried by US Gulf Coast refineries, an area already hit by heatwaves this summer and situated in a hurricane-prone region.