Why do we export light crude oil?

Not to mention the increase in profit for the refiners.

I would say that is because of the foreign policies instituted after WWII. Trying to develop trade chains amongst all the world's countries was suppose be bring the world out of poverty and prevent another world war, famines, etc. via US foreign aid and the UN.

It was thought inter dependence would bring cooperation, instead of conflict. Got a big boost under Nixon. Keep your enemy close strategy. Trade the **** out of them.

And IMHO the US is the only one that became dependent. A few years ago it was shown that we can COMPETE and sell energy for prosperity. Our present economic policy has stopped that. I seriously doubt we will ever be able to manufacture like we did. Dependence on foreign manufacture has become a fact of life for the US. No one can afford US manufactured prices. I'm waiting for the first auto mortgage.

"All constructive input is always welcome."

Why do you continually use this trope? Why is it necessary to state that?

I have my own hypothesis about that. It is not complimentary, so you may answer first.

Because there have been many replies that are pedantic,and do not contribute to the subject. A misspelled or misused word or phrase becomes the focus of their reply.

I do not seek agreement,simply pertinent info.

Disagreement is valuable,because it gives alternative views that were not evident to me.

It seems to me,in this post that you are focusing on trying to criticize rather than contribute.What did your reply have to contribute to the original post?

Let's hear your hypothesis:

Oh, did you put that clause in there just to fend off "pedants" like little old me?

I doubt it. However, you should be granted the chance to produce a cogent, rather than evasive or deflective, answer.

Never fear, though; in any event, pretty soon I will give my hypothesis.

For an unoffended person, you sure waste a lot of verbiage.

Lately, it seems you reject any complicated response or input as not being a constructive reply.

As most of you know I never worked in the petrochemical industry. I don't think anyone on CR4 has the current, granular details to address your whim but I can certainly proffer plausible speculations to this whim.

I suspect simple logistics come to play here. Configuring an industrial chemical facility (refinery) to economically produce a specific grade of petrochemical from an otherwise specific grade of crude involves some downtime of the refinery along with material costs in modifying the existing plant. From time to time crude from one region will be exported to a refinery already configured for that type of crude and then the refined product gets shipped back to the original region.

If I disagree with a reply,it does not mean it is not constructive.

Negative feedback is constructive, if it points out the error of my thought process.

That is the process of learning.I welcome dissenting opinions,but do not always necessarily agree with them.

I consider that a learning process.I have learned more from my failures than from my successes.

However,pedantic and ad hominem replies are not constructive.

I do not necessarily follow the crowd,so many of my ideas seem

preposterous,especially if I disagree with the accepted dogma.

Remember,the Brontosaurus,it never existed.It was really an Apatosaurus,and it had the wrong head for over 100 years because no one dared to challenge the much revered expert that put it there.After he died,the truth came out,and all of the experts were no longer afraid to tell the truth.

If no one challenged the current theories no progress could be made.

I am not a Lemming.I am a wild duck.

Potential for politics. <no subscribe>.

Commons sense would dictate that the simplest refining method would be the first technology to be developed,and since we have plenty of light crude,this would be the first method to be used,not the more complicated heavy crude refineries.something is wrong here,but I do not know what,or how to fix it.How long would it take to get a return on investment to modify existing refineries to handle both types of crude,or to build a dedicated light crude refinery?I am sure it must not be profitable or it would have been done already.

With the cost of shipping increasing,it may be feasible and lucrative one day.

I do not know much about refineries,only what is on the net,so anyone with in depth knowledge or experience in the field would certainly be an asset to this discussion.

"Heavy vs Light Crude Oil

American Petroleum Institute (API) gravity is the measure of the weight of crude oil. API gravity is a measure of the weight of a crude oil in relation to water. “If an oil’s API Gravity is greater than 10, it is lighter than water and will float on it. If an oil’s API Gravity is less than 10, it is heavier than water and will sink.” There are four classifications of API gravity: light crude oils, medium oils, heavy, and extra heavy.

Light crude oils have an API of greater than 31.1 degrees; medium oils have an API of between 22.3 and 31.1 degrees; heavy crude has an API of fewer than 22.3 degrees, and extra heavy has an API less than 10.0 degrees. The larger the number of degrees, the lighter a crude oil. “API gravity [is] an inverse measure of a petroleum liquid’s density relative to that of water (also known as specific gravity).”

The lighter a crude oil, the more expensive it is. “Light Crude oil is liquid petroleum that has low density and that flows freely at room temperature. It has low viscosity, low specific gravity and high API gravity due to the presence of a high proportion of light hydrocarbon fractions. It generally has a low wax content as well.” The reason light crude oil is more expensive than heavier crude is because it produces the most gasoline and the most diesel, the two most sought-after elements of crude oil.

While API gravity and sulfur content are the two most common measures of crude oil quality, there is a third: total acid content (TAN). Total acid content is an important measure of quality because TAN directly affects the price of a barrel of crude oil."....

https://rentar.com/best-crude-oil-world-crude-oils-better-others/#:~:text=Light%20crude%20oils%20have%20an,the%20lighter%20a%20crude%20oil.

"There are four types of refineries – topping, hydro-skimming, conversion, and deep conversion refineries. Depending on the market a refiner is aiming at, each refinery has its unique design to ensure their production conforms to their host country's set standards."

https://www.tankfarmnigeria.com/oil-refinery-types-petroleum-refining/#:~:text=There%20are%20four%20types%20of,their%20host%20country's%20set%20standards.

"The topping is the initial distillation of crude oil or petroleum, and consists in fractioning crude oil into the following cuts: gas, naphtha, JP or kerosene, light and heavy gas oil and atmospheric residue."

"Hydroskimming is a refining configuration that consists only of atmospheric distillation, reforming, and hydrotreating. It gets its name from having a reformer ("hydroskimmer") as its only real conversion unit."

"Conversion process units are used to convert one hydrocarbon stream into another by changing molecule size and structure. The objective is to shift the yield of the refinery away from less valuable products (e.g., residual fuel oil, LPG) and toward more valuable ones (e.g., gasoline, diesel)."

https://www.mckinseyenergyinsights.com/resources/refinery-reference-desk/conversion-processes/#:~:text=Conversion%20process%20units%20are%20used,e.g.%2C%20gasoline%2C%20diesel).

"Deep conversion refineries make value-added petroleum products at the optimum level and produce minimum furnace oil. These are equipped with a cracking facility, which uses furnace oil to produce gasoline and high-speed diesel (HSD) and minimize furnace oil production."Mar 2, 2019

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1921290/prl-invest-1b-setting-deep-conversion-refinery

The whole picture...

https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pnp_pct_dc_nus_pct_m.htm

Do not confuse 'reserves' with 'production'....The United States is the largest producer....even though Venezuela has the largest reserves, the oil is thick and deep and would be expensive to extract, if even possible...

https://www.statista.com/statistics/237115/oil-production-in-the-top-fifteen-countries-in-barrels-per-day/

Even though the US is the largest producer of oil, they are also the largest consumer, and our consumption exceeds our production...

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-crude-output-petroleum-demand-rise-2022-eia-2022-07-12/

I am sure there are financial reasons or it would not be done.

Tax breaks come to mind,such as being able to deduct all direct costs,such as drilling,extracting, transporting to ports,and shipping overseas, and the cost of the imports,so essentially,they will get the light crude refined for almost free.

There is no free lunch,the taxpayers are footing the bill by these write offs.

I am sure there are many other loopholes that I cant think of,but they have professionals to do that.

It's to our advantage to get energy as cheaply as possible, the vast majority of oil companies worldwide are state owned....only a small percentage are publicly owned...I don't get your point here...In any case oil production in the US is going to nosedive soon without new investment now, you think it's bad now, that will be much worse....it's estimated that at current production levels the US will run out of light sweet crude in 5 years, resulting in higher extraction and processing costs associated with thicker oil....

https://www.api.org/oil-and-natural-gas/energy-primers/earnings-in-perspective#:~:text=As%20shown%20above%2C%2016%20of,the%20world's%20crude%20oil%20reserves.

So, it's OK with you that other industries can take tax deductions on their expenses, but the oil industry shouldn't be allowed to?

Sounds like you've been brainwashed.

Sounds like you are reading a lot into my message that is really not there.You are painting with a very broad brush.

Certainly every company uses loopholes in tax laws to pay less taxes,but that is another subject.The topic here is exporting our light crude,when it would be simpler to refine it here and be cheaper on the taxpayer,instead of sending our tax money to a foreign country for refining.The oil companies would still be able to deduct expenses,but that would be less expense to the taxpayers.We would not be subject to the political whims of other countries.

I know it takes many millions of dollars and many years to build a refining plant from scratch,instead of modifying the existing ones designed for heavy crude,but in view of present world wide political circumstances,it would probably be more expedient to modify existing refineries to utilize both types of oil to increase our independence.

Great! So why don't you let a company build a brand new multi-purpose refinery on your property, using your money for us to use? You'll be doing us all a solid favor by helping us out with this refining problem.

That is pocket change to me,but the EPA regs. want let it happen.

The only way to escape taxes is to invest the profits in building or expanding production, otherwise the profits are paid to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks...these are not loopholes, it's the same throughout industry....the shareholders pay the taxes....Now if you were an oil company would you be trying to put profits into infrastructure in this environment...? NO, the administration has made it all but impossible to expand production, and all the while blaming you and threatening to impose a punitive tax on your profits saying that you are somehow to blame for high prices when it is their actions and their actions alone that have caused the problem...

Biden “I Guarantee You We’re Going To End Fossil Fuels”

Lesson learned? Don't bite the hand that feeds...

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/its-just-ridiculous-to-expect-oil-companies-to-rapidly-increase-production-even-as-biden-and-republicans-bear-down-11667317228

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