Susan Grissom

Limiting California’s access to the exact types of crude oil its facilities need will only increase prices for the state’s consumers and travelers. Drivers are already dealing with gasoline prices in excess of $5 per gallon and the highest fuel taxes of the 50 states. Confining energy producers and consumers to a smaller pool of crude oil will make a very sensitive price environment that much worse.

COVID-19 upended energy markets. Demand disappeared and producers scaled back. Now that economies are reopening, and the demand for goods and services is rebounding, the demand for energy all along the supply chain is increasing, driving up not only the cost of the feedstocks and fuels refineries and petrochemical manufacturers use, but also the cost of the energy used at every step of the supply chain.

Refineries are not the story when it comes to retail gasoline prices. Raw materials (in this case crude oil) account for the biggest share of the final price consumers pay.

The United States is the now largest producer of crude oil and has the largest, most complex and most efficient refining industry in the world. Yet two of our most important oil trading partners are those that share our borders: Canada and Mexico.

This week, AFPM joined API and industry associations representing fuel retailers, gasoline marketers, convenience stores and tank truck carriers to field questions from the media about the ongoing fuel distribution challenges resulting from the Colonial Pipeline shutdown.

Economic prospects for all industries—including refineries—look bleak. What context is missing from these stories?

U.S. refining capacity increased to more than 18.8 million barrels per day as of January 1, 2019, the highest capacity on record, according to a new report issued by the Energy Information Administration.