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Originally posted by oldbill123:
Iran see's the polls. Want to sabotage his re-election

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Originally posted by Dakor:
Say what??? We have more refining capacity than any nation on the planet and yes, we process our own crude and natural gas - having done so since the birth of the petroleum industry! You need to get out of Austin and drive south to Houston sometime...

quote:

As a result, I am often asked why we are exporting oil at all.

It comes down to the quality of the oil that is being produced, versus the kind of oil U.S. refineries are built to process.

Over the years, U.S. crude oil has gotten progressively heavier and sourer (meaning it contains larger hydrocarbon molecules as well as more sulfur.) Globally, heavy crude production increased in places like Canada, Venezuela and Nigeria. A wide price differential developed between heavy, sour crudes and light sweet crudes like WTI and Brent. Because crudes that are heavy and/or sour can produce about the same amount of finished products as lighter, sweeter crudes, refiners had a strong financial incentive to process the discounted crudes.

So U.S. refiners spent billions of dollars installing fluid catalytic crackers (FCCs), cokers, and hydrotreaters that are needed to process heavy sour crudes. After investing all of that money into processing the heavy crudes, the economics of running Bakken or Eagle Ford crudes in a heavy oil refinery are far less appealing than running a heavy Canadian or Venezuelan crude.

Heavy oil refiners would rather simply continue to import oil more suited to their needs, while the light, sweet crudes coming out of the U.S. shale plays are often a better fit for certain foreign refineries. Or, logistically it may simply be easier for Canada, for instance, to import U.S. crude for their East Coast refineries, while they export their heavy oil from Alberta to U.S. refineries that are equipped to process it.

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Originally posted by saigonsmuggler:

quote:

Originally posted by Dakor:
Say what??? We have more refining capacity than any nation on the planet and yes, we process our own crude and natural gas - having done so since the birth of the petroleum industry! You need to get out of Austin and drive south to Houston sometime...

Oh yes I have been all over the Gulf from Florida to SPI, and seen all those refineries. I also trade oil stocks. Anyway here's the explanation from Forbes:

quote:

As a result, I am often asked why we are exporting oil at all.

It comes down to the quality of the oil that is being produced, versus the kind of oil U.S. refineries are built to process.

Over the years, U.S. crude oil has gotten progressively heavier and sourer (meaning it contains larger hydrocarbon molecules as well as more sulfur.) Globally, heavy crude production increased in places like Canada, Venezuela and Nigeria. A wide price differential developed between heavy, sour crudes and light sweet crudes like WTI and Brent. Because crudes that are heavy and/or sour can produce about the same amount of finished products as lighter, sweeter crudes, refiners had a strong financial incentive to process the discounted crudes.

So U.S. refiners spent billions of dollars installing fluid catalytic crackers (FCCs), cokers, and hydrotreaters that are needed to process heavy sour crudes. After investing all of that money into processing the heavy crudes, the economics of running Bakken or Eagle Ford crudes in a heavy oil refinery are far less appealing than running a heavy Canadian or Venezuelan crude.

Heavy oil refiners would rather simply continue to import oil more suited to their needs, while the light, sweet crudes coming out of the U.S. shale plays are often a better fit for certain foreign refineries. Or, logistically it may simply be easier for Canada, for instance, to import U.S. crude for their East Coast refineries, while they export their heavy oil from Alberta to U.S. refineries that are equipped to process it.

Link

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Originally posted by bigdeal: ... But until the US government does release the entire flight path of that drone, all we have is noise and conflicting commentary by US and Iranian officials. And I'm not prepared to listen to either when proof of what actually happened exists.

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Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Please limit acronyms or put them in parenthesis following the term. Thanks

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Originally posted by parabellum:
TLAM = Totally Launching A Missile

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Originally posted by Jimbo54:

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The loss of a single drone, even if it was in international airspace, is nothing to get all jacked up over.

It was a $180,000,000 drone. That ain't chump change. Iran is forcing our hand and like Trump said "they made a very big mistake"

Jim

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Originally posted by parabellum:
TLAM = Totally Launching A Missile

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Originally posted by Jimineer:

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:

quote:

The loss of a single drone, even if it was in international airspace, is nothing to get all jacked up over.

It was a $180,000,000 drone. That ain't chump change. Iran is forcing our hand and like Trump said "they made a very big mistake"

Jim

Where did you get that price from? Me thinks you might be high by a factor of 5 to 10.