I heard an NPR discussion today of gas prices. There’s a shortage of refinery capacity. Someone suggested building more capacity.
ROFL!!
Are these the same folks who think fossil fuels are going out of style and should be eliminated?
Can you imagine the position of the money men? They know a new refinery will take years to get permits, then cost billions, and years to build. Could be obsolete by the time its completed and may never run.
They are smart enough not to invest in this dying industry. Better to let the zealots stew in their own juices paying high prices from shortages.
Would these folks be willing to invest their 401k money in new refinery capacity? If not, perhaps they should stop complaining and enjoy the fruits of their big mouths.
Can you imagine the position of the money men? They know a new refinery will take years to get permits, then cost billions, and years to build. Could be obsolete by the time its completed and may never run.
They are smart enough not to invest in this dying industry. Better to let the zealots stew in their own juices paying high prices from shortages.
While not their intention, ‘the money men’ are helping accelerate the transition to renewables!
I heard an NPR discussion today of gas prices. There’s a shortage of refinery capacity. Someone suggested building more capacity.
One of the articles I posted about recently pointed out that US refiners are shipping more finished gasoline to South America.
Apparently, the trend reported last November is continuing.
U.S. Gasoline Exports Surge Even as Americans Pay Up at the Pump
U.S. refiners are exporting the most gasoline in three years.Shipments of the fuel in the first eight months of the year rose to 802,000 barrels a day, the highest for the period since 2018, before the pandemic started.
Most U.S. gasoline exports go to Latin America. Refiners shipped 139,000 barrels a day to Brazil, the highest volume in data going back to 1945. Mexico, America’s biggest foreign buyer of gasoline, still hasn’t recovered to pre-Covid levels but should in the next two years as its economy bounces back from the pandemic.
So, while the US government releases oil from the SPR to dampen crude prices in the US, the refiners are using that crude to increase exports, while the USian media screams about fuel shortages.
Yep Steve shell games within shell games. Little I know and all I need to know the switch over to the summer blend there is always a shortage of refinery capacity. LOL
So, while the US government releases oil from the SPR to dampen crude prices in the US, the refiners are using that crude to increase exports, while the USian media screams about fuel shortages.
Steve
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There are no fuel shortages. Gasoline stations are open and there are no lines for getting gasoline. Yes the gasoline prices are high, but I do not see or hear any complaints about lack of gasoline. So where are the shortages? In Texas?
Perhaps they are expanding a little, but the variation over the last 40 years is quite small. It’s remarkably flat, I wonder if we could find production of some other commodity over 40 years that is similarly flat? I can’t think of any.
That may be a good sign though … that, at least on the margins, we are moving to things other than refined petroleum products for our energy.
I wonder what 2022 will be? Meanwhile, it is pretty obvious that if there were meaningful additional refining capacity, gas/diesel prices would almost surely be lower now in mid-2022.
I remember in June of 2008, the last time gas prices made a vigorous run, the POTUS proposed building refineries on former military bases, so they would be free from “intrusive, burdensome, state regulations”, and dropped Federal restrictions on off-shore drilling.
A month later, gas prices started to drop, as they usually do after Memorial Day. Sean Hannity hailed the POTUS for solving the problem, though it would be years before any policy proposal would produce a teaspoon of oil or gasoline.
