wrote:
The US recently became a net exporter of GASOLINE. It still takes
oil to make the gas and that is imported (more than not).
The US is not necessarily a NET exporter of Gasoline.
It is true that you export gasoline:
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...r-in-2011.html
Feb 29, 2012
Refiners are expanding on the Gulf Coast and in the Midwest, even as
unprofitable plants along the East Coast were shut. Operable capacity in
the U.S. climbed 0.8 percent to 17.7 million barrels a day in December
from a year earlier.
U.S. refineries in the Gulf Coast, where about half of U.S. capacity is
located, operated at 88.8 percent last year, up from 88.6 percent in
2010.
“It helps keep refinery utilization rates up in this country,” Bill Day,
a spokesman for Valero Energy Corp. (VLO) in San Antonio, said in a
telephone interview. “Otherwise we would see what we’re seeing on the
East Coast, where refineries are shutting.”
In the fourth quarter, Valero, the largest U.S. independent refiner with
14 North American plants, exported about 5 percent of its gasoline
output and 17 percent of its heating oil and diesel production, Day
said.
Gasoline demand in the U.S. sank 2.9 percent to 8.736 million barrels a
day last year as pump prices averaged $3.521 a gallon, the highest in
records dating back to 1919.
“The reason we can export so much is demand in the U.S. is weak,” Cohan
said. Since 2005, the U.S. has lost nearly 2 million barrels a day of
total product consumption, he said.
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But according to this, you are also importing gasoline:
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http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/Lea...s=wgtimus2&f=4
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Up to 1.6 million barrels of gasoline a day in 2006, declining to about
600k barrels as of a year ago, and 400k barrels today.
And by the way, your ability to export gasoline (from some of your PADD
zones) is not because your domestic refinery situation has improved over
the past 5-10 years. It's because your economy has gone into the toilet
over the past 5 years (thanks to Bush's illegal wars).
Europe uses more diesel fuel in cars and other personal vehicles than is
the case in North America, and vice-versa. Hence Europe has relatively
more gasoline as a result of their refining operations that can be
exported to North America, and that's also why more diesel vs gasoline
is exported from the US.
I would guess that your gasoline imports happen primarily on the east
cost, with some small amount on the west cost (and no gasoline imports
into the gulf states). You don't seem to have an efficient way of
getting Texas-refined gasoline to the Eastern Seaboard states, hence
their reliance on either imported gasoline, or refining more expensive
european brent in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and other east-cost
refineries (at least those that are still operating).