Saturday, May 30, 2026

The Problem With Trump-Oil

The Donald pounds the drum:  'The US is the leading producer of petroleum in the world.'

Leave aside that that statement is a half-truth.

The petroleum produced in the US is useless for US purposes.

 ..

.the US is not, contrary to Trump’s claims, energy independent when it comes to oil. US shale production is overwhelmingly light sweet crude (low density, low sulfur). However, America’s refinery infrastructure — particularly the massive Gulf Coast refining complex — was built and optimized decades ago to process heavy sour crude. Because of this, the US must import heavy crude from Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and others to feed existing refineries, while it exports its light shale oil to Asia and Europe.

The US is dependent on heavy sour crude because of the central role of diesel in the US economy. The US economy runs heavily on diesel, which is best produced from heavy crude… Trucks, trains, farm equipment, construction machinery, and home heating oil in the Northeast all depend on distillate fuels produced from heavy crude. Since US shale doesn’t yield enough heavy fractions to meet domestic diesel demand, our economy is structurally vulnerable to a disruption imports remain structurally necessary regardless of how much light crude is produced....

THAT is why Venezuela.  Venezuela has the heavy sour the US needs 

No comments: