Top 20 Largest Refining Companies/Refiners in the U.S. as of Jan 1, 2011

by David Rachovich

Refiners' Total Operable Atmospheric Crude Oil Distillation Capacity 

Rank  Jan 1, 2011	Company	No. of Refineries	Barrels per Calendar Day (b/cd)*
1.	ConocoPhillips (USA)**	13	2,041,000
2.	ExxonMobil (USA)***	7	1,951,490
3.	Valero Energy Corp. (USA)	12	1,682,300
4.	BP (UK)^	6	1,368,050
5.	Marathon Oil Corp. (USA)	6	1,142,000
6.	Chevron Corp. (USA)	6	1,027,271
7.	Royal Dutch/Shell (NL/UK)+	8	976,650
8.	PDVSA (Venezuela)#	4	854,050
9.	Koch Industries Inc. (Flint Hills Resources; USA)	3	771,578
10.	Sunoco Inc. (USA)	3	673,000
11.	Tesoro (USA)	7	657,300
12.	Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia)$	3	376,750
13.	PBF Energy (USA)	2	342,200
14.	Holly Corp. (USA)	4	285,350
15.	Access Industries (USA)	1	280,390
16.	Cenovus Energy (Canada)>	2	254,000
17.	Total (France)	1	232,000
18.	Alon (Israel)	4	231,500
19.	Western Refining Inc. (USA)	4	226,200
20.	Frontier Oil Corp. (USA)	2	185,000
U.S. Total^^		141"	17,736,370

*Includes partial interests in refineries not wholly owned by the company.  

**Including its 50% stake in the Wood River, Illinois, refinery and 50% stake in the Borger, Texas, refinery. WRB Refining LLC operates as a 50/50 joint venture between ConocoPhillips and Cenovus Energy (Calgary).

***Including its 50% stake in the Chalmette, Louisiana, refinery.

^Including its 50% stake in the BP-Husky, Toledo, Ohio, refinery.

+Including Shell's stakes in Motiva (i.e., its 50% stake in the Port Arthur, Texas, refinery; its 50% stake in the Convent, Louisiana, refinery; and its 50% stake in the Norco, Louisiana, refinery), and its 50% stake in the Deer Park, Texas, refinery.  

#Including its 50% stake in the Chalmette, Louisiana, refinery. Also, Citgo, a wholly-owned subsidiary of PDVSA, operates three refineries – Lakes Charles, Louisiana; Lemont, Illinois; and Corpus Christi, Texas.

$Consists of 50% stake in Motiva. Motiva is a 50/50 joint venture between Shell and Saudi Aramco.

>Consists of 50% stake in WRB Refining LLC (a 50/50 joint venture between ConocoPhillips and Cenovus), i.e., 50% stake in the Wood River, Illinois, refinery and 50% stake in the Borger, Texas, refinery.

^^Including other refineries but excluding Hovensa's 500,000 barrels-per-day refinery on the Caribbean island of St. Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. Hovensa is a joint venture between subsidiaries of Hess Corporation and Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA).

"Only refineries with atmospheric crude oil distillation capacity.

Notes: PBF Energy Company LLC on Tuesday, March 1, 2011, announced that its subsidiary, Toledo Refining Company LLC, has completed its purchase of the Toledo Refinery in Ohio from Sunoco, Inc. Separately, Western Refining  indefinitely suspended refining operations at the Bloomfield, New Mexico, refinery in November 2009.  Atmospheric crude oil distillation -- The refining process of separating crude oil components at atmospheric pressure by heating to temperatures of about 600 degrees to 750 degrees Fahrenheit (depending on the nature of the crude oil and desired products) and subsequent condensing of the fractions by cooling.

Source: Based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration/EIA, Refinery Capacity Report, Release date: Jun 24, 2011, Table 5, here.

(ConocoPhillips is the largest refiner in the United States, with crude oil distillation capacity of 2 million barrels per day as of Jan 1, 2011, followed by ExxonMobil and Valero. Also, please see my post "Top 10 Largest Refining Companies in Asia, the USA and Western Europe -- OGJ," and Aaron and David Rachovich, "Top 28 Largest Refineries in the U.S. as of Jan 1, 2011 -- EIA." Update: As of late 2012, the top 5 largest refiners/refining companies in the United States have been Valero/12 refineries with 2,096,500 b/cd of crude capacity, Phillips 66, ExxonMobil, BP and Marathon---please see Warren R. True and Leena Koottungal, "Asia, Middle East Lead Modest Recovery in Global Refining," OGJ, Dec 3, 2012, Table 2 in my post "World's Top 25 Largest Refiners, Jan 1, 2013 -- OGJ," Notes. For the USA, Valero has moved into the top spot for company-wide capacity, pushing Phillips 66 to No. 2 -- D.R.)