"We must build more refineries," sez bush

posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:17 PM Permalink

Why, when all the oil companies shut down working plants to maximize profit and engineer phony "shortages" to jack up the price of oil and gas? A brief sampling from the Google should suffice to clear up this lie. (I'm not going to link to each individual article, just use the Google to search for "refinery closures last ten years"):

Shell sees refinery closures, chemical asset sales ahead [title. Bill][…]

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Feb 16, 1998 by Reed V. Landberg
LONDON -- The Royal Dutch/Shell Group is planning to close petroleum refineries and make acquisitions and disposals of assets in its chemicals unit to revive flagging profit across the group.
[break for new quote. Bill]

Port Stanvac Refinery Closure: Mobil To Mothball Plant [title. Bill][…]

The decision by oil giant Mobil to close its Port Stanvac refinery will mean the loss of 400 jobs in the short term, but what does the future hold for the massive complex ? Following yesterday's announcement of the closure, the State Government says it will now investigate avenues of using the site for other activities if the company does not plan to re-open it in the next few years.[break for new quote. Bill]

The Oil Industry, Gas Supply and Refinery Capacity:More Than Meets the Eye An investigative report presentedby Senator Ron Wyden June 14, 2001 “As observed over the last few years and as projected well into the future, the most criticalfactor[sic] facing the refining industry on the West Coast is the surplus refining capacity, and thesurplus[sic] gasoline production capacity. The same situation exists for the entire U.S. refiningindustry[sic]. Supply significantly exceeds demand year-round. This results in very poor refinerymargins[sic], and very poor refinery financial results. Significant events need to occur to assistin[sic] reducing supplies and/or increasing the demand for gasoline.”Internal Texaco document, March 7, 1996“A senior energy analyst at the recent API (American Petroleum Institute) conventionwarned[sic] that if the U.S. petroleum industry doesn’t reduce its refining capacity, it will neversee[sic] any substantial increase in refining margins…However, refining utilization has beenrising[sic], sustaining high levels of operations, thereby keeping prices low.[Break for new quote. Bill]

The Social and Environmental Costs of Oil Company Divestment from U.S. Refineries[title. Bill]

BACKING OUT OF THE USA

There are approximately 170 oil refineries currently operating in the United States, and the number is steadily dropping. A decade and a half ago, many of the large oil corporations -- including Chevron, Mobil, Shell, Unocal and BP -- began shifting their investment focus overseas. The companies cut back on investments in their U.S. refineries, with many ultimately selling them off to smaller independent companies. Some companies like Arco and Shell could not find a willing buyer for their refineries, and just shut down operations. Many of the smaller companies have followed suit in recent years, closing many of their refineries. U.S. refinery shutdowns in the last two years include: Barrett Refining in Thomas, Oklahoma; Crystal Refining in Carson City, Michigan; Cyril Petrochemical in Cyril, Oklahoma; Intermountain Refining in Fredonia, Arizona; Tosco Refining in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania; and Total Petroleum in Arkansas City, Kansas.

Refinery closures have caused refining capacity in the United States to drop 20 percent from its peak in 1982, says Keith Peterson, director of Standard & Poor's global energy group in New York City.

Big oil companies are not fleeing the United States because the country has run out of oil. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that two-thirds of all the oil ever discovered in the United States is still underground. Companies are leaving because they can get rich quicker overseas.

Are you beginning to get the gist of this? Deliberate shutdown of working refineries is what is contributing to our higher oil prices, and for no reason other than to maximize profits.

And yet our jerk-off president, an oil man from an oil family, once again thinks that we, the people, are too stupid to connect the dots and discover the truth of the matter.

Liar.

Labels: Bush, bush as chimp, conspiracy, corporate greed, corruption, disinformation, hypocrisy, liars