Anonymous
You are blaming the wrong group on this problem & issue. Enviromental stupidity is behind problem of not getting new refineries – NIMBY’s who dont give crap about the environment and EPA are problems but never see to get heat. The Refinery in Yuma has everyone behind the new refinery but isnt getting past the Environmentalist – it is just one of 13 states that have no refining capacity & when anything happens to 2 pipelines that feed into state it becomes Crisis. The lack of capacity forces US to import gasoline – how many major oil companies do you know of that like having to import from competitor (Like idiot Chavez) and run their own asset at lower capacity. Do math the economics just don’t work – all it does is create demand destructions.
And do you seriously think Oil industry wants to invest money in refineries like Lima (recently sold to Husky) that are over 100 years old with units replaced & patched in over last 30 years….instead of building new one?
Same thing is true on cost of Gasoline – no one explains that all the low sulfur fuel regulations, reduced vapor pressure, removal of MTBE add over $0.5-75/gallon to cost and reduces the amount that can be produced. And we have so many different flavors (cocktail spec’s each state gets create its own) that it is no longer fungible so you cannot shift oversupply to short region most of the time.
You want climb on high horse – make sure you get the right pony cowboy…..
Charlie