a shortage of oil refineries creating low supply

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Zeno Marx

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I thought this was a good, informative take on the fuel shortages contributing to the high prices. This guy is a farmer, a college educated engineer, and politically right of center. Not to make this political, but to give some background. I don't even know if we can talk about this apolitically. I hope so. I watch this guy every week, and he often says something interesting about technology or something adjacent to agriculture. I will say that he really fires up some of the more conservative farmers who watch him. They write him some pretty scathing emails, and he doesn't even share the worst ones.

If you don't want to watch the video, here are some hot points.

1) there hasn't been a new refinery built since 1974 (I think I remember the date accurately, but I'm terrible with dates. it was sometime in the early 70s for sure, though)
2) they closed down some of the less efficient, older refineries when the pandemic hit the demand side hard. they have not been re-opened.
3) the oil corporations have no incentive...speaking the stockmarket here...to re-open, or build new refineries, A) because of record profits right now (check out the chart he shows), B) because it takes a long time to re-start these old refineries (I'm not sure why that is, and he didn't go into it), and C) because they see renewables are the future, so make the profits while you can.
4) there is no shortage of oil. there is a shortage of refineries, creating a poor supply of fuels. Demand is through the roof.

5) *this is my addition that he didn't not mention: nobody wants a refinery in their back yard, so where to put a new one?

start at 14:55
http://farmjournaltv.gallery.video/...2112/u.s.-farm-report-07-09-22?autoStart=true
 
Thanks! That was excellent and the story afterwards about the Massey Harris 55 was almost as good (for me anyway).

When it comes to gasoline prices ... we're screwed. Remembering $0.279 for a gallon of gas at Vickers seems like a hallucination.
 
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The second quarter in a row with record profits, and at the same time, oil production fell.​

Big oil's quarterly profits hit record $50 billion, with BP yet to come​

https://www.reuters.com/business/en...it-record-50-bln-with-bp-yet-come-2022-07-29/
"Companies are prioritizing returning cash to investors rather than investing in new oil and gas production, and keeping their eye on capital discipline and the long-term shift to low carbon energy."
 
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