US Refinery Utilization Rate: Weekly EIA Data Since 1990

The US refinery utilization rate measures how hard US refineries are running relative to their operable capacity, expressed as a weekly percentage. Published by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) every week since November 1990, it is the principal supply-side gauge of the US refining system: sustained highs signal tight refined-product markets, while sharp drops flag hurricane outages, demand collapses, or planned maintenance turnarounds. Because refiners can briefly run above their rated operable capacity, the series occasionally exceeds 100 percent.

Dataset: US Refinery Utilization Rate (1990–2026) · Updated 2026-10-23

Data provided as is, with no warranty of accuracy or timeliness. Check any figure against the primary source cited on this page before using it. Terms: legal notice.

Source: US Energy Information Administration (EIA), Weekly Petroleum Status · series WPULEUS3

Macro Takeaway

Dataset Overview

Dataset Variables

The CSV and Excel files contain the following columns.

Column names match the CSV headers exactly.

Download the Complete Dataset

The full US refinery utilization dataset is available in CSV and Excel formats.

Data provided as is, with no warranty of accuracy or timeliness. Check any figure against the primary source cited on this page before using it. Terms: legal notice.

Direct CSV Access: Eco3min Structured Dataset

https://eco3min.fr/dataset/eia/us-refinery-utilization.csv

This URL returns the complete dataset in CSV format. It can be used directly in pandas, R, curl, or any data tool. The underlying data is EIA series WPULEUS3, published in the EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report; this page provides a clean, analysis-ready CSV with a consistent header and both CSV and Excel downloads.

Using the Dataset in Python

import pandas as pd

url = "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/eia/us-refinery-utilization.csv"
df = pd.read_csv(url, parse_dates=["date"])

print(df.tail())
print(f"Latest utilization: {df['refinery_utilization'].iloc[-1]:.1f}%")

Using the Dataset in R

library(readr)

url <- "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/eia/us-refinery-utilization.csv"
df <- read_csv(url)

tail(df)
summary(df$refinery_utilization)

Both examples load the dataset directly from the URL, no download or API key required.

Methodology

The US Energy Information Administration derives percent utilization of refinery operable capacity from its weekly survey of US refineries, reported in the Weekly Petroleum Status Report (series WPULEUS3). Utilization is gross crude and other inputs to distillation units as a share of operable capacity, so it can exceed 100% when refiners run above rated capacity during peak demand. A neighbouring angle: how to read the US refinery utilisation rate. The Eco3min pipeline pulls the series from the EIA open-data API and writes the CSV, Excel and JSON files.

EIA publishes the weekly figure on Wednesdays, covering the week ending the prior Friday; the pipeline refreshes on that cadence. Weekly values are occasionally revised in subsequent releases as refiners reconcile survey data. The same Wednesday report carries the crude side of the balance, the weekly US commercial crude oil stocks excluding the SPR, whose week-on-week change is the print the market reads first.

Historical Regimes

1990s: Running hot. Through the mid-to-late 1990s the US system ran near its limit, peaking at 100.5% on 28 August 1998, as demand growth outpaced capacity additions and refiners pushed operable capacity to the maximum.

2005: Gulf hurricanes. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita shut a large share of Gulf Coast refining; utilization fell to 69.8% on 30 September 2005, one of the sharpest weather-driven drops in the series.

2008: Ike and the financial crisis. Hurricane Ike combined with collapsing demand to take utilization to 66.7% on 19 September 2008, a low that reflected both physical outage and a demand shock.

2020: COVID demand collapse. As fuel demand evaporated, refiners cut runs and utilization fell to 67.6% on 17 April 2020: a demand-driven trough rather than a supply outage.

2021: Winter Storm Uri. The February 2021 Texas freeze knocked out Gulf Coast refining and drove utilization to its dataset low of 56.0% on 26 February 2021, the deepest single-week drop in the record.

2022–2026: Tight throughput. With capacity reduced by post-pandemic closures and product demand firm, utilization returned to the mid-90s: the 243 weeks since January 2022 average 90.9% against 89.7% for the full record, and the print of 98.0% on 28 August 2026 is one of only seven readings at or above 97.5% since 2000. For a different view, see the full record of US refinery closures by year.

Related Macroeconomic Datasets

Utilization is best read with refining margins, the crude input, and the product prices it feeds.

Related Analysis

Macroeconomic Dataset Hub

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Explore the Eco3min Dataset Hub

Sources

• US Energy Information Administration (EIA): Weekly Petroleum Status Report, percent utilization of refinery operable capacity (WPULEUS3)
• Eco3min Research: structured dataset compilation

Dataset Reference

Eco3min Research. (2026). US Refinery Utilization Rate: Weekly EIA Data (1990–2026).<br> https://eco3min.fr/en/us-refinery-utilization-rate-dataset/