The World Can’t Get Enough Of US Diesel As Exports Surge

gCaptain ^ | July 17, 2022 | Chunzi Xu

[silent majority rising]

Yet biden is raising hell with the gas stations for selling diesel for $6.00 a gallon. Perhaps if he quit exporting, then it would be the same as it was two years ago.

[FLT-bird]

That’s a good idea.....though I might be tempted to exclude our immediate neighbors Canada and Mexico. I dunno that we can produce enough in some areas though we can certainly produce enough overall....eg when we were energy independent under Trump we still had to import a few things even though that was balanced out by our exports.

[Alberta's Child]

What’s there to fight? Do you even listen to yourself? You finally have an industry in the U.S. that EXPORTS a huge volume of product … to offset all the imports that YOU are always complaining about … and you want some political hacks to “fight” it?

I finally figured it out. You’re just a whining malcontent.

[Spktyr]

The export ban we had actually made prices at the pump higher for most of the time it was in place, actually.

[jstolzen]

Of course, all that is being done to America is ON PURPOSE. Once you see that, it all makes sense.

EXACTLY.

Brandon and the "green true believers" WANT to totally kill off fossil fuels.

What better way to achieve that goal than make it too painful for people to continue to own gas-based vehicles?

FWIW, I saw the other day that the governments OWN department that analyzes such things (I think it was called IEA or something like that) has determined that "best case", solar, wind and electric will meet ~25% of all US energy needs by the year *2050*, and that oil will continue to be needed for 75%. And that is BEST CASE. So all this "kill off oil and kill it TODAY" is asinine and totally unachievable. The US needs oil today, will need it decades from now, and will probably need it centuries from now. Anything else is a fantasy.

[Spktyr]

Also something to consider - the EPA has forced ‘boutique blends’ of fuels, ostensibly to counter the ‘unique’ pollution circumstances in each urban area. These reduce the economies of scale because each area has to have a different blend of fuel. You can’t sell fuel from one region to another without the government issuing emergency permission.

But if you make it for export, you don’t have to do any of this. You can just make pure fuel, no extra additives.

[artichokegrower]

So where are they all getting their Diesel Exhaust Fluid? Or is that just a US thing? Self-inflicted wounding again...
They are not under the jurisdiction of the California Air Recourses Board or EPA. They don't have Tier IV diesels so they don't need DEF

[central_va]

Let me explain I want the USA to be SELF SUFFICIENT. Exporting natural resources and importing finished products (mercantilism) was the main reason we fought the War of Independence. Get it?

[FLT-bird]

That was due in part to oil companies not being able to export even if they had an abundance. So they did not want to invest a lot and risk being able to produce more than they could sell domestically. Ergo chronic underinvestment.

I would allow exports but only once the price was below a certain threshold in the US. That way they could invest a lot and be confident that once they had satisfied domestic demand (at least to a reasonable level) they could then export any additional oil and gas they had. So there would be nothing to discourage them from investing in domestic production to the full.

[Alberta's Child]

I don’t think the U.S. export ban ever applied to diesel or other refined oil products — only crude oil.

[Spktyr]

You may want to look at the logical extension of that - you have just disincentivized bringing the price down for domestic producers.

[Alberta's Child]

Diesel fuel is a finished product, not a natural resource … so I have no idea what you’re talking about.

[Spktyr]

Correct, it did, but there were related export permit shenanigans for refined fuels too. And yes, it did force prices up.

[central_va]

Diesel fuel is a finished product, not a natural resource … so I have no idea what you’re talking about.

It is not hard to figure out. We need to make EVERYTHING in the USA and be self sufficient. Protectionism is about IMPORTS and not exports. Protective tariffs have nothing to do with exports.

As far as exporting diesel fuel goes it's a good idea to keep it here and not export it. But export tariffs are unconstitutional so there is nothing that us patriots and nationalist can do about it. You Free Traitor™ can export as much as you want and sell out your fellow citizens for a buck. Hopefully starting '25 we can stop that silliness somehow.

[FLT-bird]

No. I’ve incentivized them to bring the price down (ie satisfy the domestic market) so that they can then export.

[Spktyr]

No, think about it. They have incentive to run the domestic price above the price the rest of the world market would pay. They would make more money.

[FLT-bird]

But the way the law would be written, they would not be able to export unless the domestic price were BELOW a certain threshold. If the price is below, it means domestic demand has been satisfied. If the price is more expensive in the US than in world markets, it means that domestic demand was not satisfied and thus they would be unable to export.

[poinq]

We should never have let this happen. We should not be selling gas or oil to other countries. Oil companies have no country. pretty soon they will all be owned or controlled by the Chinese. And our own oil will not be ours. Shell is not an American company, Amaco is not an American company. BP is not an American company. We need to understand that selling these resources is not a good thing. We had a law against selling oil to other countries. We changed that law. It was a very bad thing.

[Cobra64]

This administration is literally bleeding us dry. Exporting diesel overseas, and draining SPR for export to China! The intent is clear: Destroy America.

[Spktyr]

Yes, but if they keep domestic prices high, they won’t really care that they won’t be able to export. They’ll make more money with less hassle with high domestic prices.

Let’s do the math in a very simple way. For the purposes of illustration, let us assume that the US price per gallon of “generic fuel” is currently $30. Let us assume that your proposed law has passed and the domestic price threshold to be allowed to export this generic fuel is $15. Further, let’s assume that cost of production is currently $20 and that the world spot price is $30.

The problem is that the US is the top consumer of this generic fuel. There is enough demand that however much is made, it will be bought and consumed pretty quickly. A company producing this fuel at a $20 per gallon cost is going to look at the US and world pricing and quickly conclude that it doesn’t care about export sales because when you add in transport costs (tankers are not free) plus applicable import/export duties, the profit margins are higher if you just sell in the US. There is less hassle, less permitting and less paperwork. Let’s use a simple number to cover transport and those costs - $3.50 to get the fuel to the customer in the US and $7.00 to deliver to Generic Foreign Country Customer.

So, per gallon of generic fuel sold in the US, the company will clear $6.50 of profit, but per export gallon sold it would only get a $3 profit. Which do you think the company will want to go for? Congratulations, you’ve just incentivized that company to keep domestic pricing high.