Bloomberg reports that Valero Energy Corp., the largest U.S. independent refiner, “will spend $200 million to improve reliability at a gasoline-producing unit at its St. Charles refinery in Norco, Louisiana.”

According to the report:

The project will reduce the frequency of required maintenance on the unit, giving the company access to a larger amount of processing capacity over the course of two years, Chief Executive Officer Bill Klesse said.

The unit, a fluid catalytic cracker, has the ability to process 100,000 barrels of crude oil a day, Klesse said after attending the National Petrochemical and Refiners’ Association annual meeting in Phoenix.

The project is one of Valero’s efforts to improve its “mechanical availability,” a metric used to track refiners’ competitive advantage in industry surveys conducted by the Dallas-based Solomon Associates.