November 22, 2005

FLOORLESS:

Refinery bottleneck to ease: Oil companies already have plans to add 6 percent to US capacity. (Ron Scherer, 11/23/05, The Christian Science Monitor)

In a move that could bode well for Americans' gas tanks, the oil industry is quickening its pace of investing in more refining capacity.

Over the past two months, energy companies have announced refinery expansions of almost 1 million barrels of oil per day - nearly 6 percent of the amount of gasoline produced today. More announcements may come this spring.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 22, 2005 5:40 PM
Comments

Companies prefer expansions - that is, adding more refining facilities - instead of building new ones on different sites because it's faster and will probably not require new zoning.

Not to mention the NIMBYs and the Sierra-club types. There hasn't been a new refinery built in what, 30 years?

Posted by: Gideon at November 23, 2005 3:42 AM

6%? That will cover demand growth for about 3 years. They wouldn't be adding capacity if there were no floor. There is a floor - namely, current prices.

Posted by: Robert Duquette at November 24, 2005 4:47 PM
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