Valero falls behind Exxon in US refining capacity

HOUSTON, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Valero's (VLO.N) decision to mothball its Delaware City, Delaware, refinery will strip the company of its status as the largest U.S. refiner and elevate Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) to the top spot, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration capacity statistics.

On Friday, Valero announced plans to permanently shutter the plant, citing weak economic conditions that have left refiners struggling with paltry margins amid sluggish demand.

Shaving Delaware City's crude throughput of 182,200 barrels per day (bpd) cuts Valero's combined capacity to 1.82 million bpd from 2 million, and the plant portfolio will be down one to 15.

Exxon, with six U.S. plants including the nation's largest in Baytown, Texas, has overall capacity of 1.87 million bpd. Counting Exxon's half-interest with Venezuelan national oil company PDVSA in a Louisiana refinery, Exxon's crude capacity is 1.96 million barrels a day.

Fadel Gheit, an oil analyst with Oppenheimer & Co, shrugged at Valero's No. 2 status.

"It doesn't really matter," Gheit said. "Twenty years ago Chevron was the largest refiner before Valero got so big."

Valero spokesman Bill Day said Valero "is concentrating on being the safest, most reliable and most efficient, not the biggest."

This year, Sunoco (SUN.N) closed its 145,000 bpd Eagle Point plant in New Jersey and sold an 85,000 bpd refinery in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which shaved its overall U.S. capacity to 673,000 bpd from three refineries. Sunoco remains the second largest independent U.S. refiner and No. 7 overall.

The closures, along with Flying J's shuttering of its 66,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Bakersfield, California, in January, cuts overall U.S. refining capacity by 2.25 percent to 17.3 million barrels a day. (Reporting by Kristen Hays; Editing by Erwin Seba and Christian Wiessner) ((kristen.hays@thomsonreuters.coml +1 713-210-8538; Reuters Messaging: kristen.hays.reuters.com@reuters.)) ((For help: Click "Contact Us" in your desk top, click here [HELP] or call 1-800-738-8377 for Reuters Products and 1-888-463-3383 for Thomson products; For client training: training.americas@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646-223-5546))