US operable refinery capacity totaled 18.2 million barrels per calendar day as of January 1, 2026, a decline of more than 250,000 barrels per calendar day, or about 1%, from a year earlier, according to the US Energy Information Administration's latest annual Refinery Capacity Report. The drop stemmed largely from the closure of two plants: LyondellBasell's 263,776-barrel-per-calendar-day refinery in Houston, which ended operations in March 2025, and Phillips 66's 138,700-barrel-per-calendar-day refinery in Los Angeles, which ceased operations in October 2025. Combined, the two closures removed about 400,000 barrels per day of refining capacity nationally, an amount partly offset by marginal capacity gains at other existing plants.

The Los Angeles closure carried outsized regional weight, cutting West Coast refining capacity by 5% even though the plant represented a small share of total national capacity. The EIA noted that limited pipeline capacity connecting Gulf Coast refining hubs to the West Coast means capacity losses in that region can disproportionately affect regional fuel supply. Valero's 145,000-barrel-per-day Benicia, California refinery also ceased refining operations as of March 2026, with its capacity removed from EIA's monthly estimates after that date, though it was still counted as operational in the January 1, 2026 report.

Among the largest US refiners, Marathon, Valero and ExxonMobil each reported capacity increases of under 1% in 2026 from small-scale process improvements, while Phillips 66's overall capacity declined due to the Los Angeles closure. Marathon's Galveston Bay refinery remains the largest single US refinery by stream-day capacity, and Motiva's Port Arthur, Texas plant remains the largest by calendar-day capacity.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration — https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67807