Tag: Oil Prices
Where Each US Region Gets Its Oil Imports
Ever wondered exactly which countries the oil in your region comes from? Well here is the answer.
Last year, the U.S. imported 40 percent of its crude oil. But not as much as you might think comes from the Middle East. Most of it comes from Canada, and a good amount from Africa.
But where your fuel comes from has a lot to do with what part of the country you’re in. To the person standing at the pump, gassing up the ol’ family truckster, it all looks and smells the same when it comes out of the pump nozzle. But it didn’t all start out the same.
Some grades of crude are more difficult to process than others. For example, crude that comes from Canada’s tar sands takes a different process to refine than the type of shale oil found in North Dakota and Texas.
All in all, the U.S. imports about 2.3 million barrels per day from Canada, 2.1 million barrels per day from the Middle East, and 900,000 million barrels per day from Africa. Where that oil ends up depends upon where it makes the most sense to ship. That’s why African oil goes to the East and Gulf coasts, Mexican crude to the Texas and nearby states, and Canadian oil to the Midwest and anywhere else a pipeline can take it.
If it’s approved by the U.S. government, the proposed Keystone XL pipeline extension could mean pumping 1.5 million gallons per day of Canadian tar sand crude over 1,700 miles to Texas refineries. But the political battle will have to play out completely before the fate of the project is settled.
California Gas Prices Skyrocket To Nearly 6 Dollars A Gallon
You better watch out Barack, something like this may put California in play this November.
Gasoline station owners in the Los Angeles area including Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) are beginning to shut pumps as the state’s oil refiners started rationing supplies and spot prices surged to a record.
Valero Energy Corp. (VLO) stopped selling gasoline on the spot, or wholesale, market in Southern California and is allocating deliveries to customers. Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) is also rationing fuel to U.S. West Coast terminal customers. Costco’s outlet in Simi Valley, 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles, ran out of regular gasoline yesterday and was selling premium fuel at the price of regular.
The gasoline shortage “feels like a hurricane to me, but it’s the West Coast,” Jeff Cole, Costco’s vice president of gasoline, said by telephone yesterday. “We’re obviously extremely disheartened that we are unable to do this, and we’re pulling fuel from all corners of California to fix this.”
Spot gasoline in Los Angeles has surged $1 a gallon this week to a record $1.45 a gallon premium versus gasoline futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That’s the highest level for the fuel since at least November 2007, when Bloomberg began publishing prices there. On an outright basis, the fuel has jumped to $4.3929 a gallon.
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