With refinery utilization following a downward trend since 2006, and this trend intensifying in 2009, many operators of North American refineries are tackling the tough question of how, whether, and which of their plants can be expected to survive in the current climate.
Solomon Associates vice president Mike Hileman recently offered some insights to Downstream Today, telling editor Matthew Veazey that
a decrease in demand – rather than an overbuilding of refining capacity, which was a target of cost-cutting measures in previous decades – is [a] unique driver of the current transformation … U.S. gasoline demand peaked in 2006 and may never reach those levels again.