A previously scheduled turnaround at Valero's 150,000 b/d Benicia refinery may mark the beginning of the end of refining operations at the Northern California facility, according to city officials and West Coast trading participants.
Last crude in is expected to be Feb. 5, according to one U.S. West Coast trader, in line with a statement released by Valero last week.
"Valero will proceed with idling through a phased approach, starting with its processing units in February, due to required mandatory state inspections that cannot be deferred," the energy company said. "The refinery will continue producing gasoline as it works down the inventories but expects most refining process units to be properly idled by April."
Valero's closure will be a phased process, but market sources expect the process to last "not as long" as the recent shuttering of Phillips 66's 156,000-b/d Los Angeles refinery in 2025. While Valero has not directly contacted Benicia about these plans, City Manager
Mario Giuliani said it will "not be surprising" if the facility begins idling in February.
"Valero has been planning for years to do a major turnaround and maintenance in February 2026 so it's completely consistent that they would be slowing or kind of ceasing refining operations in that month," Giuliani said. "Turnaround is major maintenance for a refinery, where they shut down, either, in some cases the entire plant, in other cases, segments of a plant."
He added that the "intent" so far from Valero has been to use the facility as an import terminal. He said the company has partnered with Oakland-based Signature Development Group for redevelopment.
"I think the plan is for the site to be redeveloped, and that's still proceeding," he said. "I would imagine Valero will come and have a conversation with the city on what their plans are sometime in the spring."
- -
This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
Reporting by Shaheer Naveed, snaveed@opisnet.com; Editing by Michael Kelly,
mkelly@opisnet.com
(c) 2026 Oil Price Information Service, LLC. All rights reserved.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 13, 2026 16:16 ET (21:16 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments