NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. oil refiners were activating hazardous weather contingency plans at their East Coast refineries on Friday as a paralyzing major snowstorm took aim at the Mid-Atlantic region.

“Our Paulsboro refinery is making preparations, but has not reported any impacts to production,” said Bill Day, a spokesman for leading refiner Valero Energy Corp. <VLO.N>.

Valero’s 195,000 barrel per day Paulsboro plant in New Jersey was among regional refineries potentially in the storm’s cross hairs.

Others included Sunoco Inc’s <SUN.N> 178,000-bpd refinery in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, and a 335,000-bpd complex in Philadelphia.

NEW YORK, Feb 5 (Reuters) – U.S. oil refiners were activating hazardous weather contingency plans at their East Coast refineries on Friday as a paralyzing major snowstorm took aim at the Mid-Atlantic region.

“Our Paulsboro refinery is making preparations, but has not reported any impacts to production,” said Bill Day, a spokesman for leading refiner Valero Energy Corp. <VLO.N>.

Valero’s 195,000 barrel per day Paulsboro plant in New Jersey was among regional refineries potentially in the storm’s cross hairs.

Others included Sunoco Inc’s <SUN.N> 178,000-bpd refinery in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, and a 335,000-bpd complex in Philadelphia.

NEW YORK, Feb 4 (Reuters) – U.S. independent refiner Sunoco Inc <SUN.N> said on Thursday that planned turnarounds at its refineries in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, and Toledo, Ohio will probably reduce production in the first quarter of 2010.

Sunoco’s overall crude oil utilization rate for the fourth quarter 2009 rose to 85 percent from the third quarter’s 74 percent, the company added in its quarterly earnings.

It said this increase reflects higher utilization at the Philadelphia and Marcus Hook refineries as a result of a shift of production from the Eagle Point, New Jersey, refinery in connection with the idling of that facility in early November.

On Feb. 1 Sunoco announced it has permanently shut its idled 145,000-bpd refinery in Eagle Point as weak margins continued to batter the U.S. refining sector. [ID:nN01183182]

NEW YORK, Feb 4 (Reuters) – U.S. independent refiner Sunoco Inc <SUN.N> said on Thursday that planned turnarounds at its refineries in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, and Toledo, Ohio will probably reduce production in the first quarter of 2010.

Sunoco’s overall crude oil utilization rate for the fourth quarter 2009 rose to 85 percent from the third quarter’s 74 percent, the company added in its quarterly earnings.

“This increase reflects higher utilization at the Philadelphia and Marcus Hook refineries as a result of a shift of production from the Eagle Point (N.J.) refinery in connection with the idling of this facility in early November,” it added.

The statement did not provide details about the planned maintenance at the Marcus Hook and Toledo refineries which have capacities of 178,000 barrels per day (bpd) and 160,000 bpd, respectively. The Philadephia complex can process up to 335,000 bpd of crude.

NEW YORK, Jan 27 (Reuters) – ConocoPhillips <COP.N> said on Wednesday it planned economic run cuts at some refineries to combat weak industry fundamentals but added it expected depressed refining margins in the U.S. West Coast to improve.

The third largest U.S. oil company’s strategy over coming years is to have a smaller downstream business, Clayton Reasor, vice president of corporate affairs, told analysts during a conference call to discuss quarterly earnings.

Earlier on Wednesday, Houston-based ConocoPhillips reported a $1.2 billion profit for the fourth quarter of 2009, but its refining arm had a loss of $215 million. [ID:nN27202613]

The company does not expect refining unit losses in 2010 to continue at last year’s magnitude, Reasor said.

NEW YORK, Dec 3 (Reuters) – Valero Energy Corp’s <VLO.N> CEO said on Thursday that U.S. refining margins remain depressed but he sees signs of improvement early next year.

“Margins look better for Q1,” Valero Chairman and CEO Bill Klesse told reporters at the Platts Global Energy Awards in New York. “We need demand to recover.”

Klesse said while he does see improvement in refining margins in the first quarter of 2010, he said shuttering the company’s 195,000-barrel-per-day Paulsboro, New Jersey, refinery remains “an option” and that large-scale maintenance that could include a completely shutdown was still planned for the first quarter of 2011.

“We had interest in Paulsboro, but nothing came of it,” he said.

NEW YORK, Nov 5 (Reuters) – Sunoco Inc <SUN.N> said Thursday it is pressing on with idling its 145,000-barrel-per-day Eagle Point refinery in New Jersey, where all processing units ceased production this week.

Sunoco’s third-quarter crude oil utilization rate fell to 74 percent, reflecting planned work at the Toledo, Ohio, refinery and a one-month maintenance on a gasoline-making fluid catalytic cracker at the Philadelphia refinery, the company added in its quarterly earnings release. [ID:nWNAB1401]

The utilization rate is down from 78 percent in the second quarter for the the northeastern U.S. refiner, whose chairman and chief executive officer, Lynn Elsenhans, on Thursday painted a bearish business outlook.

“We continue to expect a challenging market for petroleum and chemical products due to ongoing economic weakness and additional global supply,” Elsenhans said in the statement.

NEW YORK, Nov 5 (Reuters) – Sunoco Inc <SUN.N> said on Thursday it is pressing on with idling its 145,000-barrel-per-day Eagle Point refinery in Westville, New Jersey, where all processing units have ceased production this week.

Sunoco’s third-quarter crude oil utilization rate was 74 percent, which reflects planned work at the Toledo, Ohio, refinery and a one-month maintenance on a gasoline-making fluid catalytic cracking unit at the Philadelphia refinery, the company added in its quarterly earnings release. [ID:nWNAB1401]

The utilization rate is down from 78 percent in the second quarter for the the northeastern U.S. refiner, whose chairman and chief executive officer, Lynn Elsenhans, on Thursday painted a bearish business outlook.

“We continue to expect a challenging market for petroleum and chemical products due to ongoing economic weakness and additional global supply,” Elsenhans said in the statement.

NEW YORK, Nov 5 (Reuters) – Murphy Oil Corp <MUR.N> said Thursday it plans unspecified turnaround work in the first quarter of 2010 at its refineries in Meraux, Louisiana, and Milford Haven in the United Kingdom.

The outlook for Murphy’s downstream sector remains bearish during the current quarter because of weak fuel profit margins, President and Chief Executive Officer David Wood told analysts during a conference call to discuss quarter earnings.

On Wednesday, El Dorado, Arkansas-based Murphy said third quarter profit fell 68 percent to $188.9 million as crude oil prices dropped sharply from a year ago and weak fuel demand in the global economic slowdown hurt its refining business. [ID:nN0459885]

Murphy’s Meraux refinery was currently running at about 110,000 barrels per day (bpd) while its Superior, Wisconsin, plant was at 34,000 bpd, due to the margins remaining weak in the fourth quarter, the top executive said.

NEW YORK, Nov 3 (Reuters) – Marathon Oil Corp <MRO.N> said Tuesday some new units at its 256,000 barrel-per-day Garyville, Louisiana, refinery were already in sequential start-up with the crude unit start-up seen in mid-November.

Other new units, including a hydrocracker unit, will be started up after the crude unit, with the process seen completed by year-end, a company executive told analysts in a conference call to discuss quarterly earnings.

The refinery has been undergoing a major expansion since March 2007 to increase its oil refining capacity by 180,000 bpd.

“We are 98 percent complete. We are already in sequence start-up of some of our units and we expect the crude unit to go through that sequence in mid November,” said Gary Heminger, Marathon’s executive vice president for the downstream sector.