Off to the races...
Gasoline inventories rose, with all else falling.
The consumption of gasoline continues to decline.
The pump price for gasoline continues to be in a moderating range, with diesel doing similarly. I would still expect upward pressure on diesel.
[WARNING] My opinion about a couple of things.
Some of the social media I follow has a guy proclaiming that lack of new refineries is the reason for the diesel price being so high.
A dose of reality... we export nearly 1.7M barrels a day of distillate. We could reduce distillate export, but considering the crude cocktail required in current optimal refinery opertion... the distillate price would fall, however the gasoline price would rise rather dramatically.
Of course another major refinery being built could still utilize the current crude cocktail, we would require more imports, although it would reduce the price of diesel and gasoline unlikely. An added refinery would also accompany the infrastrucure investment in export facilities, as gasoline and diesel are traded internationally.
The ability to refine more would make those cheaper prices more attractive in a global market.
Besides, those billions of dollars set aside to build a major refinery, plus infrastructure to export more product would likely not achieve a net profit, as the expectation of all, is to eliminate crude from the equation over the next 30-40 years.
That's just my opinion. Any comments?
