Refining capacity reduction

[mastein]

I have a question for all the fine DUers on this board.

Does anyone have hard numbers on the reduction in refining capacity that has taken place since the wave of oil company mergers/consolidations that occurred in the late 90s and into the early part of this decade? I am interested in how much of the total oil market that the top 5-6 companies have, and how their refining capacity has gone down voluntarily over the last 5-8 years.

Thanks in advance,

[Dr.Phool]

1. I can't give you any actual numbers

But I do know that BP shut down a major refining operation in Lima, Ohio in the late '90s.

[Dead_Parrot]

2. This might be useful:

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/finance/mergers/refcap_tab1.html and
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/finance/mergers/refcap_tab2.html

Refining capacity, 1982 vs 2002, by company. The first link lists them by 1982 rank, the second by 2002 rank.

[mastein]

3. Thanks

Thanks for the link. For those that don't understand the charts, they say that over the 20 years from 1982 to 2002, our refining capacity for turning oil to gas has gone DOWN by about 2.5%. Now Krauthammer and others are calling for the government to pay for additions to our refining capacity. Anyone care to explain why the oil companies' failure to keep up their investments should come out of my pocket? That is a powerful and real argument we need to make!

[happyslug]

4. So What????

What about FOREIGN Capacity? For example today Kuwait produces a lot of Jet Fuel and exports Jet Fuel instead of Crude oil. All of the Middle East produces have built refineries over the last 30 years so that they can keep more of value of their oil in their own countries. The problem is NOT domestic Refineries, but world wide refineries.

[Dead_Parrot]

5. Not sure about that...

It would depend on actual refinement, rather than capacity. With the mergers, the big companies would have found they had entire refining complexes spare: Whilst they could have mothballed them in case they were needed 20 years later, they probably decided it made more sense to scrap them.

But I'd agree that the government should be forking out for them, though. Exxon's profits for the last quarter were around $10 billion. I'm sure they can scrape the cash together for a refinery or two.

[happyslug]

6. Oil Refinies World Wide

http://www.moles.org/ProjectUnderground/drillbits/5_01/vs.html
http://www.worldenergy.org/wec-geis/publications/default/tech_papers/17th_congress/1_3_20.asp
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aLfutyiuqIJQ&refer=news_index