U.S. refinery capacity increased 2% in 2023

Operable atmospheric crude oil distillation capacity, our primary measure of refinery capacity in the United States, increased by 2%, or 324,000 barrels per day (b/d), in 2023, according to our recently published Refinery Capacity Report.

Every year, refiners in the United States report their capacity as of January 1, which we publish in our Refinery Capacity Report.

The 2% increase marks the second consecutive year of U.S. refinery capacity growth, but the 18.4 million-b/d capacity as of the beginning of 2024 remained slightly less than the record on January 1, 2020, of 19.0 million b/d.

Much of the increase in U.S. refining capacity in 2023 was due to a 240,000-b/d expansion project at ExxonMobil’s Beaumont refinery in Texas, which brought the refinery’s capacity to 609,000 b/d.

Idle U.S. refinery capacity was at an all-time low at the beginning of the year, and no facilities were reported completely idle for the second time since 2018. Some capacity at otherwise operable refineries was reported idle at the beginning of both 2018 and 2024.

Principal contributors: Kevin Hack, Julie Harris