Refinery Operating Cost per Barrel: FY2025 Ranked

A Dollar a Barrel Is a Large Gap

Seven US refiners reported FY2025 operating costs between $4.93 and $8.38 for every barrel they ran. For Valero and Marathon, each running close to 3 million barrels a day, a dollar a barrel is a large sum. Cost is the half of refining economics a management team controls, because the crack spread (the margin between crude and the products made from it) is set by the market.

No two refiners define the number the same way. Par Pacific says so in its own 10-K: “different companies within the industry calculate it in different ways.”

FY2025 Operating Cost per Barrel, Ranked

Every figure is the company’s own FY2025 cost per barrel of refinery throughput, from its 10-K or fourth-quarter results filed in January and February 2026. All exclude depreciation and amortisation.

The two largest systems have the lowest costs. Valero and Marathon each ran close to 3 million barrels a day, so fixed costs, from staff to insurance, spread across more barrels. Both also keep turnaround costs out of the figure.

Five of the seven reported a higher cost per barrel than in FY2024. HF Sinclair and Par Pacific were the exceptions.

Turnarounds Are the Biggest Definitional Gap

A turnaround is a planned shutdown of a unit for major maintenance, every few years. Refiners account for it in three ways, and the choice can move the figure by more than a dollar.

• Deferred and amortised. Valero, PBF Energy, HF Sinclair, CVR Energy and Par Pacific capitalise turnaround spending and write it off over the years to the next one. It lands in depreciation and amortisation, outside these five companies’ figures.
• Expensed, on a separate line. Marathon Petroleum expenses turnarounds but excludes them from its $5.59. Its turnaround cost, $1.39 a barrel, is reported on a separate line.
• Expensed, inside the figure. Phillips 66 includes $494m of turnaround expense in its $6.83.

So Phillips 66’s fourth place partly reflects a cost the other six refiners keep out of their figures.

Volume Can Move the Figure as Much as Spending

PBF Energy is the clearest case. A fire at its Martinez refinery on 1 February 2025, early in a planned turnaround, took barrels out of the year. Total throughput fell from 330.9 million barrels to 304.0 million, and cost per barrel rose from $7.52 to $8.38.

CVR Energy rose from $5.86 to $6.25. Its 10-K puts the increase down to lower throughput during a major turnaround at its Coffeyville refinery, which ran from the first quarter of 2025 into April, partly offset by lower operating expenses.

Check throughput before reading a rise as a cost problem.

Other Differences to Check

• SG&A. Phillips 66’s controllable costs include selling, general and administrative expenses. Most others report refinery operating cost alone.
• Adjustments. Valero’s $4.93 is adjusted. It excludes $50m of employee retention and separation costs from refining operating expenses of $5,426m.
• Scope. HF Sinclair’s consolidated $7.67 averages two regions: $6.16 in the Mid-Continent and $8.83 in the West. CVR’s figure covers its petroleum segment only.
• Missing filers. Delek US reports cost per barrel for each refinery but no company total, so it is not ranked here. Its four refineries ran between $4.86 and $7.11 in FY2025.

Using the Ladder in a Mid-Cycle Build

The mid-cycle EBITDA guide deducts $6.50 a barrel for cash operating cost and corporate overhead. That sits mid-table. Valero, Marathon and CVR Energy reported less, and Phillips 66, Par Pacific, HF Sinclair and PBF Energy more. Phillips 66’s figure includes SG&A; most others exclude it.

Before using any of these figures in a model, settle three things: whether turnarounds are inside the number, whether overhead is, and whether the year’s throughput was normal.