Phillips 66 is increasing the processing capacity ratings of several of its refineries, company officials said Wednesday.
Speaking during a call with analysts, Rich Harbison, the company's executive vice president for refining, said that structural changes at some refineries will allow Phillips to boost overall capacity at some refineries.
This includes raising the capacity of the Billings, Mont., refinery from its 66,000 b/d stated capacity to 71,000 b/d, Harbison said. He said the company's 258,500 b/d Bayway, N.J., refinery will see its capacity increase to 275,000 b/d. The company's Sweeny, Texas, refinery, which currently has a crude throughput capacity rating of 265,000 b/d, will see that raised to 277,000 b/d.
During the fourth quarter of 2025, Phillips refineries operated at 99% crude capacity utilization and saw refining margins average $12.48/bbl, a 33ct increase from the third quarter and more than double the $6.08/bbl seen during the same period in 2024, the company said.
The company reported total processed refinery inputs of 189.465 million bbl during the quarter, up from 171.031 million bbl in Q4 2024.
Officials said they expect company refinery crude utilization to average in the low 90% during the first quarter.
Overall, Phillips reported fourth quarter earnings of $2.9 billion, compared to $8 million in Q4 2024. Full year earnings for 2025 were $4.4 billion, more than double the $2.1 billion for all of 2024.
Speaking during the earnings call Wednesday, Harbison said the company is well positioned to benefit from increased flows of Venezuelan heavy crude into the U.S.
Phillips 66 has the capacity to process 250,000 b/d of Venezuelan crude, with Harbison saying the company's overall capacity to handle Venezuelan crude gives it an advantage over its peers.
"We're going to look at the economics. We're going to run our models and if it makes sense to process it or not," he said. "But we've got the capacity there. We don't have to spend a dime to get there, and we're ready to go."
Brian Mandell, executive vice president for Marketing and Commercial, said the capacity to handle heavy crude will also benefit Phillips even if it doesn't purchase barrels from Venezuela, as increased shipments from Venezuela are also impacting the price of Western Canadian Select crude.
"When we're thinking about crudes, whether we bring in Venezuelan crude or some other crude, we're thinking about the cost of the crude, the crude type, the value of the products the crude makes, transportation costs, the specific refinery that the crude is going to," Harbison said. "We have a lot of flexibility about what crudes we can run in all our refineries."
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 Steve Cronin, scronin@opisnet.com; Editing by Michael Kelly, mkelly@opisnet.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 04, 2026 16:15 ET (21:15 GMT)
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