Maintenance problems crimp gasoline refineries' production
By BARBARA HAGENBAUGH
USA Today
WASHINGTON — U.S. refiners are producing far less gasoline than they are capable of making because of planned and unplanned maintenance.
That has led to a greater reliance on imports and has made U.S. gasoline supplies vulnerable to further disruptions, such as hurricanes, during the busy summer driving season.
U.S. refineries churned out 87.6 percent of the gasoline that they were capable of producing in the week before last, down from 89.2 percent in the prior week and 5.7 percentage points below a year ago, the government said Wednesday.
The drop came at a time when gasoline production is usually rising to meet summer demand. But aging refineries, continued maintenance following hurricanes in 2005 and greater complexity in refining is forcing refineries to shut down lines.
"U.S. refineries are old," said Bruce Bullock, head of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University. Firms "are having to maintain (refineries) more, and they are having more unplanned outages."
Examples:
Even with the shutdowns, U.S. firms are producing record amounts of gasoline in 2007 because of expansions at existing refineries, American Petroleum Institute economist Ron Planting said.
"We have added the equivalent of a new refinery every year for the last 10 years," he said.
