Glossary

Refinery

Refinery:  An installation that manufactures finished petroleum products from crude oil, unfinished oils, natural gas liquids, other hydrocarbons, and oxygenates.

Refinery and blender net inputs:  Raw materials, unfinished oils, and blending components processed at refineries, or blended at refineries or petroleum storage terminals to produce finished petroleum products. Included are gross inputs of crude oil, natural gas plant liquids, other hydrocarbon raw materials, hydrogen, oxygenates (excluding fuel ethanol), and renewable fuels (including fuel ethanol). Also included are net inputs of unfinished oils, motor gasoline blending components, and aviation gasoline blending components. Net inputs are calculated as gross inputs minus gross production. Negative net inputs indicate gross inputs are less than gross production. Examples of negative net inputs include reformulated gasoline blendstock for oxygenate blending (RBOB) produced at refineries for shipment to blending terminals, and unfinished oils produced and added to inventory in advance of scheduled maintenance of a refinery crude oil distillation unit.

Refinery and blender net production:  Liquefied refinery gases, and finished petroleum products produced at a refinery or petroleum storage terminal blending facility. Net production equals gross production minus gross inputs. Negative net production indicates gross production is less than gross inputs for a finished petroleum product. Examples of negative net production include reclassification of one finished product to another finished product, or reclassification of a finished product to unfinished oils or blending components.

Refinery capacity utilization:  Ratio of the total amount of crude oil, unfinished oils, and natural gas plant liquids run through crude oil distillation units to the operable capacity of these units.

Refinery fuel:  Crude oil and petroleum products consumed at the refinery for all purposes.

Refinery gas:  Still gas consumed as refinery fuel.

Refinery input, crude oil:  Total crude oil (domestic plus foreign) input to crude oil distillation units and other refinery processing units (cokers, etc.).

Refinery input, total:  The raw materials and intermediate materials processed at refineries to produce finished petroleum products. They include crude oil, products of natural gas processing plants, unfinished oils, other hydrocarbons and oxygenates, motor gasoline and aviation gasoline blending components and finished petroleum products.

Refinery losses and gains:  Processing gain and loss that takes place during the refining process itself. Excludes losses that do not take place during the refining process, e.g., spills, fire losses, and contamination during blending, transportation, or storage.

Refinery olefins:  Subset of olefinic hydrocarbons (olefins) produced at crude oil refineries, including ethylene, propylene, butylene, and isobutylene.

Refinery output:  The total amount of petroleum products produced at a refinery. Includes petroleum consumed by the refinery.

Refinery production:  Petroleum products produced at a refinery or blending plant. Published production of these products equals refinery production minus refinery input. Negative production will occur when the amount of a product produced during the month is less than the amount that is reprocessed (input) or reclassified to become another product during the same month. Refinery production of unfinished oils and motor and aviation gasoline blending components appear on a net basis under refinery input.

Refinery utilization rate:  Represents the use of the atmospheric crude oil distillation units. The rate is calculated by dividing the gross input to these units by the operable refining capacity of the units.

Refinery yield:  Represents the percentage of finished product produced from input of crude oil, hydrogen, and other hydrocarbons and the net input of unfinished oils. Except for finished motor gasoline, finished aviation gasoline, and distillate fuel oil, EIA calculates refinery yield as the net production of a finished petroleum product divided by the sum of the input of crude oil, hydrogen, and other hydrocarbons and the net input of unfinished oils. For data before January 2009, EIA calculated refinery yield (except for finished motor gasoline) as the net production of a finished product divided by the sum of the input of crude oil and the net input of unfinished oils.

• For finished motor gasoline, subtract the input of natural gas liquids, fuel ethanol, and oxygenates plus the net input of motor gasoline blending components from net production of finished motor gasoline. Divide by the sum of the input of crude oil, hydrogen, and other hydrocarbons plus the net input of unfinished oils.
• For data before January 2009, EIA calculated refinery yield of finished motor gasoline as the net production of finished motor gasoline minus the sum of the input of natural gas liquids, other hydrocarbons, hydrogen, and oxygenates plus the net input of motor gasoline blending components. Divide this total by the sum of input of crude oil and the net input of unfinished oils.
• For finished aviation gasoline, subtract net input of aviation gasoline blending components from net production of finished aviation gasoline and then divide the total by the sum of the input of crude oil, hydrogen, and other hydrocarbons plus the net input of unfinished oils.
• For distillate fuel oil, subtract the input of renewable fuels except fuel ethanol (such as biodiesel and renewable diesel fuel) from distillate fuel oil net production and then divide the total by the sum of the input of crude oil, hydrogen, and other hydrocarbons plus the net input of unfinished oils.

  Refinery-grade butane:  A refinery-produced hydrocarbon product that is composed predominantly of normal butane and/or isobutane, and may also contain propane and/or natural gasoline. This product may also contain significant volumes of olefinic hydrocarbons.