A Reply to Another's Post--Oil Exports

I posted this in response to Craig at "Going Green" and his typical liberal conspiracy theories on Big Oil...


He posted on a friend's blog about gasoline prices where I also posted a response...

Do a little research, will you? please???

According to the Energy Information Administration
In 2007, 27 thousand barrels per day of crude oil were exported (out of nearly 5.1 million barrels per day of domestic production). This makes up 0.53% of domestic production.

In 2006 0.49%
2005 0.62%
2004 0.50%

So far in 2008 (January - July, latest info available) we are averaging 0.4%

96.4 percent of the crude exports in the last four years (and 100% since 2006) go to...are you ready?

Canada! Why Canada? Well, let's say you pull oil out of the ground in a state that borders our friends in Canada and the nearest domestic refinery is four times as far as a nearby refinery in Canada...it makes sense to send it to Canada to be refined, doesn't it?___________________________________

Now, perhaps you were talking about petroleum products (such as gasoline, diesel, etc.)...
In 2007, our refineries produced 18.0 million barrels per day of refined products (we used nearly 20.7 million bpd).We exported over 1.2 million barrels per day or 6.9% of our total refinery production.

2006 6.4%2
005 5.7%
2004 5.1%
2003 5.1%

Why do we export? Several reasons...

1) certain products are overproduced in the US (distillate fuel oil, petroleum coke, residual fuel oil). We cannot just make gasoline, other products are made in the process.

2)NAFTA...most of our product exports are to Mexico (19.9% in 2007) and Canada (11.5% in 2007)...Again, logistics make this inevitable...Why would Tijuana get its fuel from a refinery on the Mexican Gulf Coast when there are California refineries better suited to supply them?

3)Other trading partners...18.1% in 2007 to Central American and Carribean countries12.3% in 2007 to South American countries19.4% in 2007 to Europe (including the Netherlands--our third largest export market at 5.8%)5.1% to Singapore in 2007 (our fourth largest export market)and 3.8% to Japan in 2007 (our fifth largest)

We have about 25% of the world's refining capacity, so it makes sense for us to export some of our refined product.

So far in 2008, we have averaged 9.2 percent. Seeing as domestic demand has fallen dramatically, it makes sense that our exports would rise...doesn't it?__________________________________

In 2007, of the 1.25 million barrels per day total petroleum product exports, we exported the following:
366,000 bpd of petroleum coke (29.4% of total)
330,000 bpd of residual fuel oil (26.5% of total)
268,000 bpd of distillate fuel oil (heating oil and diesel) (21.5% of total)--2/3 of this was diesel which does not meet our new EPA standards for sulfur content for trucksand 127,000 bpd of gasoline (10.2% of total).

Where did it go?

In 2007, of the 1.25 million barrels per day total petroleum product exports, we exported the following:

279,000 bpd to Mexico (22.4% of total)
162,000 bpd to Canada (13.0% of total)
81,000 bpd to The Netherlands (6.5% of total)
71,000 bpd to Singapore (5.7% of total)
54,000 bpd to Japan (4.3% of total)
53,000 bpd to Chile (4.3% of total)
51,000 bpd to Panama (4.1% of total)
48,000 bpd to Spain (3.8% of total)
46,000 bpd to Brazil (3.7% of total)
34,000 bpd to Italy (2.7% of total)
33,000 bpd to The Bahamas (2.6% of total)
and 30,000 bpd to Jamaica (2.4% of total).

All other recipients recieved less than 30,000 bpd.