Posted on 06/09/2014 5:07:51 AM PDT by ckilmer
Actually there is a great excuse, perhaps the greatest ever.
The Democrats must be defeated, trashed, destroyed in November.
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You probably have the right take on the article writers politics. The guy wants lower oil prices to benefit dems.
Since demand keeps dropping.
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Its overseas demand that drives prices.
As others have pointed out, it is a global market and the price of oil is largely driven by demand for gasoline.
Demand for gasoline in the US peaked, has fallen, and will continue to fall because of the rising CAFE standards.
OTOH, around the world, there is a rise in income, increasing middle class, reductions in poverty. More and more people buying cars and the gasoline to fuel their cars.
So the price of oil and price of gasoline is being driven by consumers in China and other Asian nations, and consumers in Mexico, Brazil, and Latin America.
US exports of gasoline and diesel are at record levels, the most since WW2.
It is legal for US oil producers to export oil only to Canada and Mexico. Mexico doesn't need US oil, but we are exporting record amounts of oil to Canada because The eastern Canadian refiners are set up for the sweet light Brent crude oil and they want the sweet light shale oil produced in the US(Bakken-Eagle Ford) to replace the Brent crude.
As you probably have noticed, US oil producers are agitating, for Obama, Congress, or both to relax oil exports regulations to allow them to export oil to nations other than Canada/Mexico.
And the refiners are agitating to get the Keystone pipeline completed to get more of the Alberta heavy crude down to the refiners on the gulf coast.
Rather than thinking of the US in terms of importing and exporting oil, refined product, natural gas, energy. Think of the US as a Trader of these products.
Traders, whatever they are trading, always benefit monetarily more than the producers and consumers.
Why don’t we see refineries being built nearer to the oil fields to reduce the cost of transportation of the product??
“..The guy wants lower oil prices to benefit dems...”
OK I am not well versed in oil politics - that’s a given.
However, the way I see it lower costs at the pumps benefits all Americans - from the over the road truckers, air lines, manufacturers, etc. to my greatest daily expense - the price I pay for gasoline.
Light distillates are the fastest-growing refined product category
Because it is cheaper to move crude oil the distance than to build new refineries, tear down old refineries, then build new product pipelines and other transportation for gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, heavy fuel oil, chemicals feedstocks, sulfur, petroleum coke, and all the other products that come out of a refinery.
Oil is converted to different grades of gasoline, diesel, kerosene, jet fuel, solvents, heating oil, precursors for synthetic chemicals/plastics, paint, ink, tar for roads and roofs, shingles, petroleum coke which is burned to produce electricity, condoms & combs, to name a few.
NIMBY. Have you ever smelled the effluent that a refinery produces?
The modern refineries typically release cooling water cleaner than the water they take in, if they have any release at all.
I was mainly referring to the smell.
My Grocery bill agrees with your analysis.
News update says oil is surging, up today more than $1, above $104/bbl.
“The modern refineries typically release cooling water cleaner than the water they take in, if they have any release at all.”
Nope.
Industrial cooling tower water systems constantly release a percentage of the circulated water as purge. The purge controls the build up of contaminants in the closed system.
That’s exactly what you do to your car glycol cooling system. The “purge” is intermittent every thousands or miles or number of years, recommended by the manufacturer. Draining, flushing and replacing with fresh 50% glycol fill.
Some plants use potable water for cooling tower systems. No way that the cooling water will come out cleaner. IOW, good for human consumption as the same potable water used to fill cooling systems.
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/air/pdfs/cooling3.pdf
Once-through cooling water systems such as river water and seawater are different animals.
I’ve seen several refineries and Chem plants that had to significantly clean the canal, river etc before the water can be used in the plant. The resulting release water is often cleaner than the original intake.
“I’ve seen several refineries and Chem plants that had to significantly clean the canal, river etc before the water can be used in the plant.”
Yes. Using multiple filters to remove mud, dirt and what have you to protect the cooling water system equipment from deposits, plugging, etc.
“The resulting release water is often cleaner than the original intake.”
No. Only “clearer” water. The back flush of filters using same river water is pumped back in the river. IOW, you saw the clearer water but not the back flush carrying what was in it in the first place because of a different exit point into the river downstream the first one.
Assuming not adding any chemicals to a one through cooling system, the effluent temperature shouldn’t exceed certain temperature according to regulation and may have to be cooled before pumping back to the river.
However, the way I see it lower costs at the pumps benefits all Americans -
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I don’t disagree.
No, I mean skimmers and separators on the intakes. I’m not talking about a visual measurement.
Just a guess but you could move crude in one pipeline but you would have to build dozens of pipes to carry the various distillates.
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