Posted on 05/16/2022 7:54:59 PM PDT by RomanSoldier19
Oil prices are a common topic of conversation around the office water cooler these days. As you might expect, perspective matters. The folks at the Halliburton, (NYSE: HAL), office in Midland, Texas likely view the advent of $100 WTI much more warmly than many others whose living doesn’t depend on it directly. At the other end of the spectrum, truckers, the good folks who deliver everything from baby formula to hamburger patties, are pleading for relief from diesel prices that have doubled in the space of a year. The old saying, “One man’s meat, is another man’s poison,” probably never rang truer. These pleas have caught the ears of many of our political leaders. With few exceptions, they have resolutely, and indignantly laid the blame for high gasoline, and diesel prices directly at the feet of the oil companies that produce, refine, and distribute these products.
The president also has made strident comments regarding oil companies. In a number of recent interviews, he has castigated them for diverting capital toward shareholders in lieu of break-neck drilling to raise oil supplies, with the desired outcome of lowering oil prices.
One can only wonder if the irony of that commentary is lost on the president.
(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...
Bkmk
So, where is the time plot of the retail Diesel to the spot oil WTI price ratio?
Price controls will solve this!
~ biden’s puppet masters
Enough with the GIFs already. They don’t contribute anything to the discussion.
Something this writer missed is that much of the refining capacity falloff is due to refiners being afraid to invest when the whole government is acting so hostile to the use of their products.
Did all the refineries go away in just the last 16 months? Because gas prices were fine and there was plenty of it just that recently. It’s almost as if there was something else that happened around then that had something to do with all our problems now.
I think that's true with all aspects of the industry. Oil companies aren't going to invest in new exploration, drilling, refining, or anything else when they know that Biden and company will yank the rug out from under them as soon as prices are under control.
NO natural process, including business, happens as a dramatic change such as we have seen this year. Only change that is artificial by change in policy can happen this fast.
This mess is caused by the administration. Any other claim is propaganda. The refinery capacity claim has just showed up in the last few days as a blitz of statements all reading alike. Propaganda.
Much of the shortage is because we don’t need so much gasoline and diesel is a byproduct of gasoline demand. More ethanol for summer blends and less gasoline needed and less diesel byproduct.
The administration has massively upset long established business practices and policy in an upheaval over 16 months. The disaster we are living and will live for a very long time to come are unnecessary and created by this administration.
The situation we live in now is like having company when you were a kid and they took out all the toys for you to clean up. It took a lot longer to clean up the mess than to make it.
Converting to biodiesel is the problem, these plants haven’t finished their conversion. That said, all their production will likely be sent off to Europe, because used to Ukraine supply a quarter of Germany’s diesel production, via sunflower biodiesel.
To me it is a crime converting sunflower into fuel, sunflower oil is healthier than soy and corn oil.
I think the US East coast used to exchange Diesel for gasoline with Europe to help balance local demands with refinery outputs.
Who knows how much Diesel is still being shipped to Europe.
I remember the high gas prices of the Carter mis-administration. Diesel was cheaper than gasoline. People were buying diesel pickup trucks as it was cheaper.
Now diesel is higher than gasoline. I have been told diesel is actually cheaper to make than gasoline.
The Philly plant burned and was shut down.
Shell shut down and mothballed the Convent Louisiana Refinery.
Marathon idled their SF Bay Area Refinery.
Valero shut down their Benicia, CA Refinery and is using it as a tankage terminal.
Due to local permitting, Phillip 66 Santa Maria is in the process of shutting down to be demo’d.
The Phillips 66 Rodeo, CA relies on the Santa Maria plant for feed; it is being converted to bio-fuels.
Seven more refineries are being threatened with fines for not blending ethanol.
This is all in the last five years or so and I’m not sure I have all of them.
After the ultra low sulfur diesel regulations went into effect, diesel is about the same price to process as gasoline.
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