Pascagoula, Mississippi refinery

The Pascagoula, Mississippi, refinery is installing a continuous catalytic reformer to increase reliability and gasoline yield.

Chevron has made tremendous strides in improving the reliability of its refineries. An important part of this effort has been to increase our refinery utilization rate, a key factor in avoiding unplanned downtime costs and improving profitability. In 2009, Solomon Associates, a leading refinery benchmarking organization, released its latest biennial results for refinery utilization. It ranked Chevron No. 1 among nine international peers tracked by the organization and was the second consecutive reporting period that Chevron had led the rankings. The Solomon utilization rate is a comprehensive indication of a refinery’s performance. With a high utilization rate, a refinery can increase product yield from existing equipment without incurring the cost or the time required for adding new units to increase capacity.

Posted: April 2010

Investing in Refineries