1. The short answer
Refinery utilisation is the share of a refinery's technically available processing capacity that is actually running, expressed as a percentage, and in the United States that figure stood at 96.8% in the week to 11 September 2026, one percentage point below the prior week (EIA, cited via thevaultreport.com, 11 September 2026). It is not a profit measure: how much a refinery earns on what it processes is the refining margin, a separate glossary entry.
A reading close to 97% means almost all available capacity is already running, leaving little spare buffer if a major unit goes down. Mansfield Energy described US utilisation on 2 September 2026 as sitting "in the mid-90s, near 96%" with "very little spare capacity."
2. How the figure is built, and who reports it
In the United States the EIA publishes utilisation weekly in its Weekly Petroleum Status Report, calculated as actual crude throughput divided by operable capacity, the technically available processing capacity of all US refineries. Operable US capacity stands at about 18.2 million barrels a day in 2026, and how much of it actually runs is reported fresh every week.
Europe has no comparable, unified percentage. Providers such as Kpler, Euroilstock and the Argus/Platts Refinery News Roundup mostly report throughput volumes in million b/d, monthly or quarterly, rather than a weekly percentage like the EIA's. This page deliberately does not estimate a European percentage from those volumes; it reports only the dated throughput figures that exist.
How much crude a refinery processes also says nothing about how much diesel or heating oil comes out the other end; that depends on the plant's configuration, the subject of our middle distillates glossary entry.
3. The numbers at a glance
The table below keeps the weekly US percentage separate from Europe's throughput volumes, because the two are measured and published differently.
| Indicator | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| US refinery utilisation | 96.8%, down 1.0 point week on week | week to 11 Sep 2026 | EIA via thevaultreport.com |
| Operable US capacity | about 18.2 million b/d | as of 2026 | EIA |
| Global refinery throughput, peak | 81.4 million b/d, +960,000 b/d vs July, −4.2 million b/d year on year | August 2026 | IEA Oil Market Report, 11 Sep 2026 |
| IEA full-year 2026 forecast | down 2.6 million b/d to 81.5 million b/d | forecast, 11 Sep 2026 | IEA Oil Market Report |
| European refinery runs, 2026 average | about 12.2 million b/d, +130,000 b/d year on year | 2026 | Kpler |
| Europe, Q4 2026 expected | about 12.45 million b/d vs 11.93 million b/d in Q4 2025, five-year Q4 average about 11.4 million b/d | Q4 2026 expected | Kpler |
No single, dated percentage for European utilisation exists in these sources; only the throughput volumes above are documented, and this page does not calculate its own percentage from them.
4. Why 97% is riskier in autumn than in spring
A US utilisation rate in the mid-to-upper 90s is considered tight in the industry, because little spare capacity remains if a major unit fails unexpectedly, and that is exactly the window when autumn maintenance, or turnaround season, falls. During turnaround season refineries take units offline on purpose for inspection and repair, which normally lowers utilisation for a while. When the rate still sits near 97% despite that, it means little unused capacity is left to absorb an unplanned outage on top of the planned ones.
That makes 2026 different from a calm maintenance season, where planned and unplanned outages usually cushion each other. Kpler describes Europe's 2026 planned maintenance cycle by contrast as "relatively light" with "few shifts despite the geopolitical situation," while the US figure itself shows "very little spare capacity," in Mansfield Energy's words. This tight US picture sits alongside a supply situation our diesel shortage glossary entry covers in more detail with current stock data.
5. What this means for your heating oil order this autumn
A high utilisation rate during maintenance season means one thing for you above all: less buffer in the system if a unit goes down unexpectedly, and that can show up as a longer delivery window for your heating oil order before it shows up in the price per gallon. The US figure is reported weekly, so you do not have to guess it yourself, you can simply track it over time; if it climbs again, the buffer shrinks further, and if it falls, the picture eases somewhat.
For an order this autumn, that means: the utilisation rate says nothing about where the price goes, so it is not a reason to order or to hold off. What it does bear on is delivery reliability during the autumn maintenance season, when lead times can run longer than usual, so it belongs in the question of how much lead time you leave yourself, not in the question of what day you buy. How flexible a smaller partial order can be is covered in our partial fill and order size glossary entry. How many days a current stock will last is the measure in our days of supply glossary entry. For a decision specific to the US Northeast, see our buy now or wait page.
Run your own consumption numbers through our energy cost calculator to see what a higher or lower price per gallon would mean for your annual bill.
Run your own numbers instead of just watching the percentage.
Open the calculator6. What this figure does not mean
Refinery utilisation is not the refining margin, and it is not the crack spread either, even though all three terms often turn up in the same sentence. Utilisation only says how much of the available capacity is running; how much a refinery earns from that is covered in our refining margin glossary entry. The specific measure behind that margin, the gap between product price and crude price, is explained in our crack spread glossary entry.
A second common mistake is treating a single week's utilisation reading as if it were the whole trend. The EIA publishes this figure every week, so a reading from one week, such as the 96.8% for the week to 11 September 2026, is a single point on a series that moves week to week, not a fixed level; check the week a figure belongs to before comparing it with another. And because no unified European percentage exists, nobody should back one out of Kpler's throughput volumes in million b/d; that would be an estimate this page deliberately avoids.