Energy Markets: Refinery Outages Can Impact Petroleum Product Prices, but No Federal Requirements to Report Outages Exist

摘要

In recent years, global demand for petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel fuel has grown more quickly than the capacity to produce them, creating a tight market. U.S. refiners have been running near capacity, particularly during peak summer demand. In such conditions, unexpected refinery outages can result in price increases that adversely affect consumers. GAO was asked to evaluate (1) the trends in U.S. refinery outages over the last 5 years, in terms of reduced production capacity, frequency, and geographic location, and (2) the federal requirements for reporting outages at U.S. refineries. To evaluate these objectives, GAO obtained and analyzed Energy Information Administration (EIA) and commercial data, and obtained and analyzed federal legislation and policies, and interviewed federal agency, academic, and industry trade group officials. With the exception of impacts beginning in 2005 related to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, GAO's analyses of commercial data on unplanned and planned refinery outages across the United States generally do not show discernible trends in reduced production capacity or in the frequency and location of outages from 2002 through 2007. GAO's analyses of commercial data from 2002 through 2007 indicate that the hurricanes resulted in two patterns of outages for refiners, depending on whether they were directly affected, specifically: (1) certain refiners that were forced to shut down due to the hurricanes opted to upgrade equipment and perform what maintenance they could during their unplanned outages, thus extending the length of time until the next round of planned outages for maintenance at these refineries; and (2) sometimes refiners not directly effected by the hurricanes deferred planned outages to continue to supply the market, thus partially increasing the need for planned outages in subsequent years as these refiners rescheduled their deferred outages. GAO's regional analyses showed few apparent trends, but some variation in reduced production capacity due to outages across regions, with the Gulf Coast region refineries experiencing a slightly higher rate of outages and related reductions in capacity than refineries in other regions, in part as a result of recurrent extreme weather events. At present, there are no federal requirements for refiners to report planned or unplanned refinery outages.