Oil-product imports may grow as U.S. refinery market suffers

MarketWatch ^ | Jan. 8, 2010, 7:00 a.m. EST | Myra P. Saefong

[300magnum]

TOKYO (MarketWatch) -- A rough road of regulatory obstacles, dull demand for oil products and weak profitability has driven U.S. refiners to cut capacity, likely setting the market up for a growing reliance on imports. And consumers will be the ultimate losers. Massive regulatory hurdles make it highly unlikely the U.S. will see any new refineries built anytime in the near future, "if ever again," said Neal Ryan, a managing partner at Ryan Oil & Gas Partners LLC. The nation's last so-called grassroots refinery, one built from scratch, was completed more than 33 years ago. The lack of new refineries and shut downs of old ones will result in a bottleneck, the likes of which will create "more of a regional than national market for various fuels," said Ryan, explaining that as some refineries are shut in, certain areas of the country will "become much more reliant on foreign imports versus U.S. refining capacity to satiate market demand."

[Former Proud Canadian]

Everyone should read this article. The world’s hyperpower has not built an oil refinery in 32 years??? This is a harbinger of bad things coming.

[300magnum]

Yeah, and see what happens when refineries have to start reducing their “carbon footprint”.

[RC2]

3-5 years to get a permit to drill is just a waste of time. With all the wells that have been put in place in this country, you would think they would have this down to a science. It has just become another way to refuse a permit. It’s BS.

[norraad]

There will never be a new refinery built here or anywhere else "they' can't get 'turd world sheep to make petro products for $35/week instead of $35/hour.

The plan is to shut down all domestic and import from uber big and uber cheap refineries coming online in the Godforsaken wilderness.

[NC28203]

>>>Everyone should read this article. The world’s hyperpower has not built an oil refinery in 32 years??? This is a harbinger of bad things coming.

Perhaps not. Capacity of existing plants has been exapanded. So despite the closure of hundreds of refineries since price deregulation in 1981, capacity has manged to increase significantly over the past 25 years.
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MOCLEUS2&f=M

[qwertypie]

The Greens have a stranglehold on the economy. They have achieved what Muslim terrorists and other American-haters only dream of doing.

[Nobel_1]

Thanks for posting ... interesting to see that few folks talk about the aggregate impact of multiple long-term and near-term “threats” to our processing industry:

- less refining = expensive fertilizer, fewer plastics, less gas, and lots of imports of many, many products and feedstocks

- enviro “good intentions” have morphed into enviro “terrorism” over the last 30 years

latest threats:
- new drill permit process (proposed)
- massive reduction in permits to drill on federal lands
- hydraulic fracturing permit (proposed)
- EPA regs (pending, if no cap-and-tax legislation)

Possible impacts:
1. Natural gas oversupply could vanish in 12 months, resulting in a natural gas super-spike (we have delayed or cancelled many LNG terminals, and we let the Chinese buy future rights to Canadian gas)

2. Increase in oil imports as domestic production comes under even more pressure

3. Tough decisions at refineries ... whether to invest “offshore” or onshore. Companies with retail gasoline outlets (e.g. Valero) may have the toughest decisions.

4. Continued pressure on exploration, production, transportation and refining employment.

Ultimately the “oil and refining and mining are bad” education message over the last 20+ years will haunt us for decades. Another reason to figure out now how you might live (”get by”) with little fertilizer, plastics, nat.gas, gasoline or electricity ...

[Dallas59]

But it’s racism not to buy oil from foreigners. It’s also racism for evil American oil corporations to drill for oil on American soil...

[13Sisters76]

It’s amazing to me- we could create thousands of jobs, literally overnight. Too bad we don’t have any politicians with a brain...

Rebuild and refurbish our OWN refineries, and build new ones as we drill our own oil and natural gas and dig our own shale. Oops! the government would have to give back the land it has grabbed from the states for that to happen, huh?

Get the EPA off the backs of the states so they can build nuclear plants to take care of the energy needs in urban areas. Too blindingly obvious?

Cut the corporate tax by half and allow tax incentives for R&D and the creation of new jobs.

There ya go- thousands, maybe millions, of new jobs,in every area, practically overnight.

[Notary Sojac]

We could build forty new refineries here in the States - but lo and behold, thirty-eight of them would mysteriously have to “shut down for maintenance” as soon as the price at the pump dropped below $2.25 or so.

[thackney]

What do you mean by Natural Gas Oversupply?

[Nobel_1]

US currently has an oversupply of natural gas ... storage has been exceeding the 5-yr average for awhile, prices plummetted (until just the last 2-3 weeks), and many domestic natural gas producers still have production shut-in. Rig count remains anemic, and inadequate gas transportation (pipeline capacity) exists to move gas out of the Rockies (still).

This graph shows storage maxed out ... Link to Graph

You can subscribe to the full weekly report (or read it) here: Weekly EIA Nat Gas Report

[Doe Eyes]

Note fewer Refineries, but more capacity.

Number of US Refineries

[thackney]

Thanks for explaning what you meant.

And yet we continue to import more than we export.

While the price has dropped greatly from the 2008 insanity, it still is not a very low price historically.

And the price to the residential consumer hasn't exactly plummetted from "normal" pricing.