Originally Posted by Pooka

One problem with supply and demand in the US is that more supply is coming in than can make it to a market.

Oil stored in Cushing, OK, is the supply and the tanks there are almost full. But because of the way the pipelines are set up oil can go into storage faster than it can go out to a refinery.

So if you look at the figures of how much oil is in storage, which is the current practice, you will not get the full picture. How much oil is being refined is the true supply.

And please note that refinery capacity has doubled in the US over the last 20 years. The bottleneck is in the pipeline system.

The only solution is to expand the capacity of existing pipelines. Then you run into the problem of every city along the existing route thinking they can stop the project until they are paid off and in fact this is true.

It is all very complicated, but I love it when people blame the EPA for the lack of oil refining in the US. The biggest problems I have ever encountered came from small town governments that would not allow expansion of a pipeline.