Refiners plan a heavy winter turnaround season

US independent refiners are planning on a heavy turnaround season early next year as the industry clings to attractive gasoline margins as long as possible.

The fall turnaround season will still feature major work at CVR Refining, Marathon Petroleum and PBF Energy facilities. But maintenance delayed from earlier this year amid a major refining labor strike and strong gasoline demand will likely land in the first half of next year, industry experts said during calls on second quarter earnings. The downtime will reduce regional crude demand and product supplies as individual refiners work through weeks of cyclical maintenance work.

"I do think you're going to see a pretty heavy turnaround season in the first and second quarters of next year," Valero vice president of refining operations Lane Riggs said.

Refiners disclosed significant planned work in the midcontinent this fall. Marathon Petroleum will this month work on a hydrocracker and reformer at its 204,000 b/d refinery in Robinson, Illinois. The refiner is working to move that facility to an all light, sweet crude diet, with modifications that will recover more diesel feedstocks. Marathon Petroleum will also this quarter work on a crude unit at its 240,000 b/d refinery in Catlettsburg, Kentucky, to improve distillate yields.

CVR will take down up to 70pc of its 135,000 b/d Coffeyville, Kansas, refinery for up to seven weeks of work beginning at the end of September. Alon USA will shut its 83,000 b/d refinery in Krotz Springs, Louisiana, for 30 days of work in late September. And PBF Energy plans a three-week turnaround at its 190,000 b/d refinery in Delaware City, Delaware, at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

Refiners generally kept turnaround work planned for early 2016 under wraps. But HollyFrontier said it plans 30 days of work on catalytic cracking units at its 52,000 b/d refinery in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and 125,000 b/d refinery in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the first half of 2016. The refiner also plans 30 days of work next spring on a diesel hydrotreater at its 135,000 b/d refinery in El Dorado, Kansas.

Husky will conduct up to eight weeks of maintenance beginning in March at its 170,000 b/d refinery in Lima, Ohio. The Canadian integrated firm plans to restart an isocracker badly damaged during a fire earlier this year during that work.

eb/tdf

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