OREANDA-NEWS. Phillips 66 cut throughputs across its US refining system by as much as 400,000 b/d during the first quarter in response to poor margins, chief executive Greg Garland said today.

The company had since returned its 2.1mn b/d refining system to roughly 90pc utilization as the US enters a choppy transition to tighter, summer-grade gasoline specifications, he said.

Gasoline margins plummeted during the first quarter, especially in the US midcontinent, under a large overhang of winter-grade gasoline. US refiners ran profitably at very high rates through the fourth quarter and filled gasoline stockpiles to unseasonably high rates despite strong demand.

"Generally, when we look in the mirror, we find the enemy," Garland said at Bank of America's 2016 refining conference in New York. "There's no question we had to work through that overhang in the first quarter."

Anticipated turnaround activity will help further draw down large gasoline inventories, Garland said, echoing a broader industry view. US gasoline volumes fell through February, according to the Energy Information Administration.