Do you believe Bandar when he says if SA sent the US all

[napi21]

the crude they coud pump, we don't have enough refineries to get it to market?

This sounds to me like another ploy to support the Bush guys to build more refineries and the heck with alternate power supplies.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Nope shadows of Enron

[robbedvoter]

2. Just like I believed Enron: "the Cali energy crisis is caused by not

enough plants to generate electricity (theirs were working at half capacity).
Same talking points.

[napi21]

3. Is there any info on the net that would show refinery production capacity

compared to actual production?

I'd love to be able to call :Washington Journal" tomorrow with some real data.

I don't believe Bandar at all, but just saying that doesn't convince very many.

[PeteC]

4. BS

I wish someone would have asked him why, if their goal is to keep oil at $25 per barrel, did they cut production when the price was above their upper price of $28 dollars per barrel.

[madmax]

5. I do believe that we don't have the refineries to

process the crude oil. Many of the refineries are old, they don't meet EPA pollutions standards. I read that many of the old plants have 'grandfather' clauses that then can operate but, if new plants are built they will have to comply to current EPA standards. The oil companies don't want to spend their profits on building new refineries.

I would have searched for more info on this and posted but, I've been sick with the cold from hell for 5 weeks and feeling very crappy today :(

Any DU dectectives out there want to put this whole thing into perspective? ;)

[PeteC]

7. Crude vs Unleaded Gas

http://futures.tradingcharts.com/hist_UG.html
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/hist_CO.html

Check out the links. It's pretty clear that the price of gas is tied to the price of crude.

[Deja Q]

6. It sounds like a swindling & coup to me... Are they setting us up twofold?

1 is the building of refineries. Who's gonna pay, especially with higher prices these days?

2 is the fact that demand is greater than supply (this also leads back to point 1 in terms of long term usefulness). As oil cannot be re-created at an affordable price, giving the US more oil will only HASTEN its demise.

But why do this? If they want to see the US crumble, all they need to is to pull out their investments. Fortune had recently said it. Michael Moore said it a long while ago. (so the fact Fortune, a comparatively mainstream media outlet compared to Moore's books, is now saying it should be pretty disturbing...)

Edit: Grammar

[Devils Advocate NZ]

8. I believe it... Its good for the bootm line!

Here's why:

Merrill Lynch increased price targets for Sunoco (nyse: SUN - news - people ) to $76 from $60 and for Valero Energy (nyse: VLO - news - people ) to $70 from $63. It rates both companies at "buy." "While the refiners have had a strong run during 2003 and quarter-to-date, we believe that further appreciation is likely for Sunoco and Valero shares" in 2004 and 2005 Merrill Lynch said. The research firm said the U.S. refining industry has entered an upward industry cycle of broadly improving profitability, following 20 years of low returns. "Despite strong gains over the last 12 months, we believe that the refining stocks have yet to fully reflect this outlook," Merrill Lynch said. Positive factors for the oil refiners include the fact that normalized demand growth exceeds domestic supply and that U.S. refineries currently run at full capacity, the research outfit said. Merrill Lynch also noted that supply growth constraints exist due to mandatory clean fuels spending and that the global refining market is slowing tightening.
http://www.forbes.com/2004/03/03/0303automarketscan07.html

If having insufficient capacity to meet demand is good for the share price of oil refiners, then I have NO DOUBT that there is insufficient capacity!