Quote:
Originally Posted by The Reaper
The issue here is that refineries make money when the spread between crude and refined products are high. When the spread is low, they make less. Sometimes, they can actually lose money.
This looks more like an attempt to drive gasoline prices up and increase the spread by tightening supply, or just spooking speculators.
TR
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Agreed. My first reaction when I read this was exactly that, an attempt to artificially tighten supply. Upon closer reading, Sunoco claims that two other refineries will pick up the slack, therefore running at higher capacity and higher efficiency. It makes perfect sense from a business perspective.
The reason I felt it was worth posting was strictly informational. There are so many other topical issues that this relates to in some way. If nothing else, it demonstrates how difficult it would be to increase refinery capacity in the U.S. by relying solely on market forces.