In 1981 the US had 324 oil refineries. We have not built a new one since 1976 and today we have 141 refineries. The top five biggest oil companies own 32.
Exon Mobile 6, Chevron 5, Conoco Phillips 11, Shell 4, and BP 6. The rest are owned by small independent operators.
The economy is in a slump, we have had a warm winter and people are driving less and all of this has lowered the demand so why is the price rising. The answer is the world market. Refineries can sell their gasoline in foreign markets and even with the increase in shipping cost they can make more money. As long as the world price is higher than the US price these refineries will continue to ship out of the country. China and India are growing rapidly and need gasoline so they are driving up the price.
Refineries in the US have been running at 98% of capacity spurred on by recent oil production from North Dakota. Unless something totally unexpected happens gasoline prices will continue to rise
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment