Posted on 06/19/2012 5:19:49 AM PDT by thackney
Valero could stop importing light, sweet crude to its Gulf Coast refineries as soon as 2013 and fully rely on U.S. production, Chief Executive Officer Bill Klese said at a recent industry conference.
With the rapid growth of domestic oil, Valero has projected that Gulf Coast refiners will soon run without foreign imports of light, sweet crude. Klese now says that moment could come by the end of 2013.
“The amount of production coming on is huge,” Klese said during the conference this month. “They really are going to push out imports.”
Federal data shows crude imports to the Gulf Coast have been gradually falling since about 2004. The region imported about 4.9 million barrels of crude per day in 2011, compared to 5.9 million barrels per day a decade earlier.
Crude production has been surging in West Texas, North Dakota and other U.S. regions as technology advances have given producers access to difficult-to-reach reserves. The rapidly growing domestic oil supply has moderate prices in the U.S. as the world crude price rose above $100 per barrel.
Meanwhile the closure of East Coast refineries, which are more dependent on higher-priced foreign crude, has squeezed the supply of refined fuels and improved profit margins for Gulf Coast refiners, Klese noted.
“The U.S. is an extremely competitive place to produce,” he said. “This is a huge opportunity for U.S. refining.”
The federal government, through OSHA and other “regulations” will make sure that any cost saving to the end users (us) will be negated.
OHSA recently required us to spend about $300,000 upgrading the electrical system in an old water flood that I have a working interest in.
The next admin will begin charging pretty good to refine foreign, dirty oil. It will go straight to pay down the debt.
i wish....
I thought Valero specialized in refining “sour” (Venezulan) crude.
Valero has some refining capabilities to handle heavy crude, but they are more than that.
http://www.valero.com/OurBusiness/pages/Home.aspx
Valero supplies fuel and products that improve people’s lives with 16 refineries and 10 ethanol plants stretching from the U.S. West and Gulf coasts to Canada, United Kingdom and the Caribbean.
I know they have been expanding capabilities to take in oil from the Eagle Ford and Permian Basin shale expansions in Texas.
Now we need more refiners all over the county.
We have a surplus capacity of refineries in the US. We already refine more than we use. Those existing refineries are already have the product distribution pipelines for the gasoline, diesel, etc that is produced.
All I know is that we sure miss the refinery in Alma Michigan.
In this election, it is imperative that reverse the Obama No Drilling Policy in the USA and return our oil production levels to at least what it was during the Bush years.
If we can do that, we could use less imported oil and the American oil industry which has been devastated by Obama may be able to be saved. But, I fear that it may be too late for our American oil companies as they may have already been destroyed by Obama.
Well I hope that we don’t import light sweet crude. Has Mayor Bloomberg told us how much sugar is in light sweet crude??? (sarcasm)
Oh we can still import it. Just not in anything bigger than a 16oz container. :-P
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