US operable refining capacity fell to 18.2 million barrels per calendar day on January 1, 2026, a drop of more than 250,000 barrels per day, or about 1%, from the year before, according to the Energy Information Administration's latest Refinery Capacity Report. The decline came as the number of operating US refineries dropped to 130, two fewer than in 2025.

Two plant closures drove most of the loss. LyondellBasell shut its 263,776 barrel per day refinery in Houston in March 2025, and Phillips 66 ended operations at its 138,700 barrel per day Los Angeles refinery in October 2025. Combined, the two closures removed roughly 400,000 barrels per day of capacity from the national total, an amount only partly offset by small capacity increases at other existing refineries.

The impact fell hardest on the West Coast, where the Los Angeles closure cut regional refining capacity by 5%. Limited pipeline connections between Gulf Coast refining hubs and West Coast markets mean the region cannot easily draw on the country's larger supply base, leaving West Coast fuel availability more exposed to local plant closures than other parts of the country. The Gulf Coast, by contrast, absorbed the LyondellBasell shutdown with a regional capacity decline of less than 2%, since that region produces more fuel than it consumes.

Valero's 145,000 barrel per day Benicia refinery also stopped operating and was removed from EIA's monthly estimates as of March 2026, though it still appeared in the annual report as of January 1 figures. Motiva's Port Arthur, Texas refinery remains the nation's largest at 656,000 barrels per calendar day.