Posted on 06/01/2022 8:43:10 AM PDT by rktman
U.S. petroleum refining capacity has declined and few plants have been built thanks to the projected decline in fuel demand and increased burdensome regulations. “There was already some contraction happening in the industry as a result of projected declines in U.S. gasoline demand into the future and companies just deciding that the assets were better used as other projects or shut down completely,” said Geoff Moody, the vice president of government relations at the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers. “They just throw lots of red tape at these folks,” Dan Kish, a senior fellow at the Institute for Energy Research, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. The U.S. hasn’t constructed a major petroleum refinery since 1977 even as fuel demand and domestic oil production have surged in recent decades.
Major refinery operators have largely opted to upgrade facilities rather than construct new greenfield plants because of the projected fuel demand decline in coming years and lengthy regulatory process required for such projects, according to industry experts. There have been 14 small refineries, each processing 4,100-46,250 barrels of oil a day, constructed since Marathon Oil opened its 200,000-barrel-per-day facility in Garyville, Louisiana, in 1977.
“The COVID pandemic really drove down gasoline and diesel demand which accelerated some things that were already happening,” Geoff Moody, the vice president of government relations at the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview.
“There was already some contraction happening in the industry as a result of projected declines in U.S. gasoline demand into the future and companies just deciding that the assets were better used as other projects or shut down completely,” Moody continued. “Some of its been very policy-driven and companies decided that it wasn’t worth it to keep operating those assets.”
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycallernewsfoundation.org ...
Yes, my nephew was laid off from his high paying job last year when they shut down the refinery he was working at. One of the problems when they shut down refineries is that the people who know how to work at them get scattered into the wind. For some reason there are not a lot of VocTech schools churning out refinery workers these days.
What changed? About 4 refineries that closed in 2020 in the US. Others globally. Production has long been snug. Those closings didn’t help.
Also do not forget. Consumption tanked 2 years ago.
I don't know 1 single person who could tell you that US refining capacity is steadily declining, but I know many dozens of people who will tell you oil is evil, NY City will soon be underwater due to melting polar ice, and that carbon dioxide will destroy the earth in 30 years.
So, its going to take a huge shock and immense pain to Americans to even begin to change their thinking.
No new wells on the horizon, but black markets and hoarding are.
Does anyone here know which 16 US critical infrastructure sites that was on the list that Jobama gave to Putin so Putin won’t target them? Kind of confirms that Jobama is a traitor.
If the oil refinery red tape is like the red tape just about everywhere else in the government, the leading companies in oil refining had a hand in creating much of it to keep competition out and profits predictable. Corporate America treats the free market like a city bus: once they get to their stop, they get off the ride.
The operative word is new
There have been modifications and additions to existing refineries to meet the refiners needs
The Communist war on oil and the automobile.
> One of the problems when they shut down refineries is that the people who know how to work at them get scattered into the wind. <
There are quite a few city-building video games. In those games, when you need power you click on an empty space. And then * poof! * a power plant appears, ready to go.
Most liberals actually believe that real life also works that way. It would be funny except that they are dragging us down with them.
99.x% of Americans have no conception of this vital issue.
Again. At the root of it is Leftism. And it is going to bite us.
Big time.
In 2013 BP spent $5 Billion on the expansion of the Whiting, Indiana refinery. It was largest private sector project in Indiana history and made BP Whiting the 3rd largest refinery in the US.
The refinery expansion was built to handle Canadian Heavy Crude and produce enough gasoline every day to fill 430,000 cars.
Not sure if Joe has cut off crude delivery from Canada...
NIMBY
You may be right about the shock and the pain, but I am not sure about "change their thinking". For a large fraction of the American people, global warming and oil-is-evil-ism have become religions. Just like the early Christians did not reject Christ because of persecution and pain, these liberals will not reject their climate religions because of shock and pain.
Not if Warren Buffet has a say. His choo choo investments were carrying a lot of it IIRC.
I read this story 10 or 15 years ago.
What you said in your last sentence is so true. Will $10 a gallon gas and paying hundreds of dollars more a month for groceries finally wake people up? That scenario will come true soon enough if things keep going as they are!
The Communist war on oil and the automobile.
Watermelon Communism - green on the outside, red on the inside.
LOL! Same old song and dance.
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