Because building the shortening the crude/bitumen pipeline doesn’t solve any problems. Instead of transporting one product now you are transporting many. The refinery does not only produce transportation fuels, it also produces chemical/plastic feedstocks, residual oil or petroleum coke, sulfur and often some others.
Moving the refinery farther from the multiple customers only spends money while creating additional problems of delivery.
Thanks for the answers to my question. I appreciate it.
Actually, I believe product pipelines like the Colonial System ship multiple products in the same line with spacers between.
Moving multiple products from concentrated areas of production to concentrated areas of consumption as a single product is more efficient from both shipping and distribution standpoints.
http://www.colpipe.com/ab_faq.asp