Exports of ultra-light crude are being legalized. It’s made simply by distillation of heavier stuff. Much of it will be leaving for other nations.
So U.S. refineries will be competing with foreigners for it. That will be an added cost for refineries, the perception by investors causing investment prices for those refineries to go down.
But as we see, ultimately, fuel will go up more. And for the years to come, there are hundreds of millions of potential new drivers in Asia alone.
Not all refineries will be hurt by that, BTW, but mainly some of the refineries in south Texas that depend more on ultra-light crude.
How in the world does that become an added cost? Many of our refineries cannot even efficiently process that stuff. It is too light and there are limits too how much of it can be blended in.