Oil eases as U.S. crude stockpiles swell

[adios]

One more oil/gasoline story.

Oil eases as U.S. crude stockpiles swell

Plenty of oil at these prices so now all we have to do is convert it to gasoline. From the article:

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) data on Wednesday showed a 200,000 barrel rise in crude inventories. Analysts had expected a decline of 1.6 million barrels.

Gasoline stocks fell four million barrels -- much steeper than the predicted 900,000 barrels.

U.S. gasoline demand is some 2.4 percent higher than a year ago. Car manufacturer General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - news) said sales of gas-guzzling SUVs were at an all-time high in July.

A spate of refinery problems showed the strain on the supply system of running near full tilt for prolonged periods to meet growing demand.

"Each problem is just a reminder as to how close to the edge we are running," said Deborah White, senior economist at SG Commodities. "The refiners have been running a marathon for two years, they are exhausted. And the marathon is far from over. The last stretch is uphill to produce winter fuel supplies."

Motiva Enterprises was the latest to experience problems, when it shut a crude unit at its 240,000 barrels ber day Norco refinery in Louisiana for unplanned maintenance.

Exxon Mobil Corp. shut down its 235,000-bpd refinery in Joliet, Illinois, on Saturday night, while BP Plc. shut a gasoline-producing unit over the weekend at its giant Texas City refinery.

As many as 21 named storms and 11 hurricanes are forecast for the 2005 hurricane season, matching a record set in 1933, U.S. government forecasters said on Tuesday.

Every article I read is that refiners have little to no excess capacity. If memory serves there have been very few if any major refineries built in the U.S. since the 70's.

[Il_Mostro]

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Every article I read is that refiners have little to no excess capacity. If memory serves there have been very few if any major refineries built in the U.S. since the 70's.

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I remember reading an article about this. Not only has no new been built, but there has also been a lot of refineries closed, don't remember any numbers, but it was a sizeable chunk of the total amount.