[deaconjim]

Don’t be so sure. If this produces oil, it will have to be produced, refined and distributed to the existing gas stations. This will fall to the existing refineries, distribution systems, and retail outlets. The oil companies would be the natural choice to get into this business, and they could make the same profits without having to deal with the dictators and OPEC members to do it. I think they would love to see this work.

[chrisser]

Don’t be so sure. If this produces oil, it will have to be produced, refined and distributed to the existing gas stations. This will fall to the existing refineries, distribution systems, and retail outlets. The oil companies would be the natural choice to get into this business, and they could make the same profits without having to deal with the dictators and OPEC members to do it. I think they would love to see this work.

Considering that crude oil prices are (roughly) half the cost of gasoline, and crude is artificially priced higher due to OPEC, the oil companies could essentially change nothing in their operations and make the same profits, if not more. Beyond that, there are no exploration or extraction costs for this crude and the feedstocks are of nearly unlimited supply. Plus, I would assume bio-based crude would not have the nasty impurities (like sulphur) that have to be removed.

Only downside I can see is that we still won't have enough refinery capacity...