>>>> A big driver of exports is simply the fact that lots of places don't have refinery capacity.
I've been harping on this for years. You can produce billions of gallons of oil, but if you can't refine it, it's a loss leader and a big reason why our gas continues to hover around $4.
If we owned the whole cycle from drilling, production, refinement and consumption, it would be huge. Cutting out the refining middle man would save us billions and dramatically reduce the price per gallon. It's just simple supply and demand.
The last refinery was built in 2008. Before that, in 1998. The majority of refineries were built in the 1970's - go figure, when oil was suddenly abundant and post OPEC embargo, very, very cheap.
For instance, Iran, one of the largest oil producing countries in the world, has to import refined gasoline, diesel, &c., because they lack refinery capacity. This in turn leads to enormous expenditures on subsidies to keep consumers and businesses running. One of the drivers for their nuclear program (setting aside the geopolitics of the bomb) is to reduce the cost of domestic energy production.
The U.S. consumes 8 or 9 million barrels of gasoline per day and imports a net of about 300,000 a day. So there is quite some domestic refinery production there.
I've been harping on this for years. You can produce billions of gallons of oil, but if you can't refine it, it's a loss leader and a big reason why our gas continues to hover around $4.
If we owned the whole cycle from drilling, production, refinement and consumption, it would be huge. Cutting out the refining middle man would save us billions and dramatically reduce the price per gallon. It's just simple supply and demand.
Just in case you wanted to know. .
http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=29&t=6
The last refinery was built in 2008. Before that, in 1998. The majority of refineries were built in the 1970's - go figure, when oil was suddenly abundant and post OPEC embargo, very, very cheap.