Posted on 12/31/2011 8:10:43 AM PST by decimon
NEW YORK (AP) — For the first time, the top export of the United States, the world's biggest gas guzzler, is — wait for it — fuel.
Measured in dollars, the nation is on pace this year to ship more gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel than any other single export, according to U.S. Census data going back to 1990. It will also be the first year in more than 60 that America has been a net exporter of these fuels.
Just how big of a shift is this? A decade ago, fuel wasn't even among the top 25 exports. And for the last five years, America's top export was aircraft.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Top US ping.
I suspect that US fuel producers find it more profitable to sell their product overseas because of EPA regulations.
If recent unemployment figures are going down slightly, you can bet it is connected to the growth of the domestic oil and gas industry. Not only does Zero have nothing to do with this, his executive branch is doing everything it can to stop it.
Maybe we should try to join OPEC? /sarcasm
Not only are we selling gas to other countries, we are selling our oil fields to the Chinese, according to a book called “Bowing to Beijing”.
So US refiners are selling more product overseas. Wouldn’t it make sense to build the Keystone pipeline and give them even more raw material? Oh, wait, never mind...
Might be hardpressed to find any real U.S. fuel producers now days...They are all international...They may sit upon U.S. soil but it seems to mean nothing to them...
They will suck the life out of Americans just as quick as they will anyone else...
This is a no brainer. Regulations have killed manufacturing to such an extent that energy is no longer needed here.Same is being done with the auto industry. Solution is to remove regulations so manufacturing can once again thrive.
This is a no brainer. Regulations have killed manufacturing to such an extent that energy is no longer needed here.Same is being done with the auto industry. Solution is to remove regulations so manufacturing can once again thrive.
My take is that no president or congress makes an economy. They can break an economy but they can't make one.
US refiners find it easier to produce one gasoline blend for export rather than more than 128 of them for domestic consumption - each metropolitan area in the US has its own EPA-mandated “boutique” blend now.
They’re finding it more profitable to sell it overseas for several reasons: (1) there are more growth opportunities overseas (the article points out that domestic consumption is actually declining); and (2) with the U.S. dollar declining against many other foreign currencies the cost of U.S.-made fuel has declined for foreign buyers in recent years.
Which one of the candidates wants to do away with the EPA? Serious question, I don’t know the answer, but I’d surely vote for that person.
Which one of the candidates wants to do away with the EPA? Serious question, I don’t know the answer, but I’d surely vote for that person.
I guess I’m uninformed, but why in tarnation’s name are we EXPORTING petroleum-based and natural gas fuels when the prices for such commodities are so high _right here_, when we are told all the time that fossil fuels are a declining resource?
Seems to me that the best way to get fuel prices downward would be to “embargo” domestically-produced energy to sales within the borders of the United States (I would make an exception for coal, which there is plenty of). Also seems to me that by withholding a certain percentage of domestic production from the American markets, this is creating an “artificial shortage” within such markets (that would otherwise not exist if 100% of domestic production had to be sold in our markets) — and that keeps prices up.
Energy companies should be free to import what products they need to satisfy the domestic markets, AFTER -ALL- domestically-produced energy products had been put to market right here. And after our “internal markets” have set prices at a domestic level.
Would such a policy be “anti-free market” in the strict sense? Yes, of course - with the unapologetic assertion from me that “American energy needs be met first”. Worry about the rest of the “world markets” later.
In a time of rising energy prices, this simply doesn’t make economic sense for America over the long-term....
Gots to bleed em dry before they make good pigs.
Part of the plan to subvert the US through DESTABILIZATION.
The EPA was a good project, at one time. Now it is out of control and a tool of communist trained leadership. It is being used like mafia bagmen who come visit you to take a percentage of your business, or else.
See post #12
The producers would then make less money. The producers would then make less fuel. Fuel prices would then not go down.
We won’t stay in this situation for long.
Closing Northeast refineries likely to disrupt supplies: US EIA
http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Oil/3856684
23 Dec 2011
Plans to idle more than 50% of refining capacity in the US Northeast are likely to cause problems for supplies of petroleum products to the region, the US Energy Information Administration said Friday in a report.
“The transition period as supply sources shift could be problematic for ultra-low-sulfur diesel, gasoline and jet fuel supplies,” EIA said.
...
Sunoco and ConocoPhillips have recently proposed the sale of three refineries in southeastern Pennsylvania that account for more than half of the Northeast’s refining capacity.
In September, Sunoco announced it would sell refineries in Philadelphia and Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, part of the company’s plan to leave the refining business by mid-2012. Later that month, ConocoPhillips said it would idle its Trainer refinery pending its sale, along with associated pipelines and terminals.
On December 1, Sunoco announced the immediate closing of its Marcus Hook refinery.
In 2010, the three refineries combined to produce 315,000 b/d of gasoline, 194,000 b/d of distillate and 41,000 b/d of jet fuel, EIA said. Distillate volumes included 143,000 b/d of ULSD, mainly for on-road use, and 51,000 b/d of higher-sulfur distillate, sold primarily as heating oil.
more at link
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