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HOUSTON, Nov 13 (Reuters) – Marathon Petroleum Corp
Chief Executive Gary Heminger said on Tuesday that growth the
company expects in U.S. refined product exports helped fuel its
$2.5 billion purchase of BP Plc’s refinery in Texas City, Texas.
The 400,780 barrels-per-day refinery does not export
products under BP’s ownership, but export capability is expected
to come after the deal closes early next year.
“We just see a change in the balance,” Heminger said
alongside Phillips 66 CEO Greg Garland at Deloitte’s oil
and gas conference in Houston. “It’s great to be on the other
side of the fence finally and say America’s providing energy to
other countries instead of us being dependent on them.”
The United States became a net exporter of refined products
last year for the first time since 1949, after it shipped out
439,000 bpd more fuel than it imported, according to the U.S.
Energy Department.
Marathon Petroleum’s 490,000 bpd refinery in Garyville,
Louisiana, is in on that trend, having exported up to 112,000
bpd of diesel fuel during the third quarter this year.
Garland added that export demand in Europe, South America
and Latin America gives U.S. Gulf Coast refiners incentive to
run their plants at full rates, particularly as their access to
cheap inland U.S. crude oil increases.
Phillips 66 also is working on export infrastructure —
mostly expanded docks and tanks — to double refined product
exports to 200,000 bpd by 2014.
“We’ll be well positioned to export, our company and the
U.S. industry here,” Garland said.
However, Garland said he expected rules barring exports of
U.S.-produced crude oil — unless the federal government grants
a license to do so — to stay in place even as output grows.
“I think that’s probably a pretty good assumption as long as
we’re importing crude into the U.S.,” he said.
(Reporting By Kristen Hays; Editing by Gary Hill and M.D.
Golan)
