(Updates with new information on turnarounds) NEW YORK, Jan 15 (Reuters) - U.S. Midwest and Gulf Coast refiners are likelyto undertake more maintenance this year after forgoing such work, orturnarounds, in 2012 to benefit from lucrative margins. Refiners like Valero, Marathon Petroleum and HollyFrontier have already taken units offline this month well before the springmaintenance season is set to kick off. The heated maintenance season will last through the second quarter of theyear and could keep Midwest crude oil inventory levels high despite the recentstart of the expanded 400,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Seaway pipeline and othermidstream projects that will soon begin shipping inland crude to Gulf, East andWest Coasts markets. The Seaway line began pumping crude from the Cushing, Oklahoma, oil storagehub to Texas last week, instantly affecting global oil trade. U.S. West TexasIntermediate (WTI), which traded at a $26 a barrel discount against EuropeanBrent in mid-November last year, narrowed the spread to $17 a barrel afterSeaway started operations.
Still, the turnaround season may not dent the glut of gasoline and dieselcurrently in store in the Midwest and Gulf Coast regions. Gulf gasoline stockswere at a record high in the first week of the year, according to weeklygovernment data. The following are maintenance schedules made public by refiners over thelast year. Name of refinery Location Capacity Timing Units involved Duration '000 bpd (days) HollyFrontier Artesia, New 105 January Crude, STC, N/A Mexico and Alky units Marathon Petroleum Catlettsburg, 233 January SRU 7 Kentucky HollyFrontier Corp Artesia, New 105 January Crude, STC, N/A Mexico and Alky units Valero Energy Corp Houston, TX 88 January Hydrotreater N/A Valero Energy Corp Corpus 200 January FCC, Oleflex 42 Christi, TX unit Valero Energy Corp Texas City, 225 January FCC 56 Texas Phillips 66 Sweeny, Texas 247 January N/A N/A Exxon Mobil Baytown, TX 560.5 January Delayed coker N/A Tesoro Corp Martinez, CA 166 January N/A N/A Chevron Corp El Segundo, 276 January N/A N/A CA Western Refining El Paso, TX 122 Q1 2013 N/A N/A HollyFrontier El Dorado, 138 March Crude unit, N/A Kansas coker and gofiner HollyFrontier Tulsa East, 70.3 March CCR and Panex N/A Oklahoma Valero Energy Corp Mckee, Texas 156 March Crude unit 28 Northern Tier St Paul, 74 April N/A 25 Minnesota Northern Tier St Paul, 74 October FCC N/A Minnesota (Reporting by Selam Gebrekidan; Editing by Bob Burgdorfer and M.D. Golan)