Fuel producers such as Marathon Petroleum Corp (MPC.N) and Valero Energy Corp (VLO.N) have delayed routine work in the past 24 months amid high margins. Those margins collapsed this year in a global fuel supply glut, providing an incentive for refiners to undertake the shutdowns necessary for maintenance.
In recent months, a spate of unexpected outages have hit refineries nationwide, taking hundreds of thousands of barrels off the market and boosting gasoline prices and margins.
U.S. refiners are expected to spend $1.26 billion on planned maintenance next year, up 38 percent from this year and the highest level since at least 2010.
Refiners are going to have trouble finding even the lowest skilled workers, such as scaffold builders, and you can't do work at a refinery without a scaffold which is likely to worsen the existing schedule.
