Posted on 05/24/2007 7:10:43 AM PDT by xzins
Amazing someone making 2000 barrels/day can compete with someone making 100X more.
Reference
But which of these refineries can process sweet crude, sour crude, or both. I understand that the BP facility in Texas City, which blew up a bit, can usually process the cheaper sour crude but can only handle the more expensive sweet crude right now and will remain at half-capacity at least through the end of the year.
But get that past Congress, ELF/ALF/Greenpeace etc....
the important question is
how many on the list reporting
—> ‘’??? PROBLEMS ‘’’ <—
#38 is no longer Premcor. Its Valero. At least for now.
I thought most of the small guys had been shut down.
Amazing someone making 2000 barrels/day can compete with someone making 100X more.
:::
It really gets down to how much each company has to actually pay for a bbl of crude. Extraction costs of the larger companies are most likely much lower than smaller ones. And what the quality of the crude is in each case. So many variables that determine the true cost per bbl.
Kind of makes you believe this is a competitive market after all.
I thought we’ve been told that there are only a havdful of refineries....This list is way more than I thought were in operation.
They typically do this one of two ways: (1) through a special product and/or process (e.g. making asphalt out of extremely heavy local crude) or (2) by taking a cut off of a local supply of crude in areas where there is a reasonable demand for refined products but where it is expensive to ship product back from lower cost refineries (e.g. Alaska).
Generally speaking, however, the larger the refinery the more the owner can achieve economies of scale and spread out corporate overhead and thus the better the margins.
Exactly. Also, it would be interesting to know the dates when these refineries were built. I think this industry is falling into the same pattern as the steel industry: We're trying to compete with outdated capital. Some US steel plants were built in the 1890's and can't compete with modern foreign competitors (e.g., Japan and Germany, whose capital stock was bombed into oblivion during WWII and replaced with more modern capital).
Just keeping for future reference....
There are 7 refineries on the Delaware River alone.
With all the recent accidents and such, I’m very curious what it adds up to today.
I think the refinery problem might be a small or bogus excuse for high gas prices. I think tax revenues, the military’s need for fuel, and stock speculators playing off Middle East fears, are causing most of the pricing problems. The price will magically come back down when it starts having a serious negative impact on the economy.
I think your concern about taxes on gasoline are real. The gov’t gets a big chunk....a lot more than the gas station gets.
And I’m not impressed that the liberals always want a “windfall profits tax.” What in the world good does that do for John Q. American in terms of gas prices?
Washington Fat Cats get extra taxes because I pay more at the pump....heck...that’d make Washington want to keep prices high all the time, so they could always get their extra taxes.
Shell apparently doesn’t like to use it’s name. Deer Park and Motiva are really Shell.
Neither oil companies,politicians,gas station owners or anyone else can do anything about what our Arab FRIENDS are charging for a barrel of oil. At present they have us over that barrel.I’m not saying that the oil cos. aren’t taking advantage of it but the largest part of the price of gas is $65.00 crude and taxes and that’s where we need to direct most of our concern.
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