Not exactly. Back in the 80s, the refineries switched over to processing the cheap and “bad” stuff (heavy, sour) into the same products you could easily make with the expensive and “good” stuff (light, sweet). The cost of the “bad” crude is much lower than the domestically produced crude, but the process to turn it into gasoline is more “expensive” based on the infrastructure investment which has already been built.
The US hasn’t built a new refinery in almost 50 years iirc. The lead time to reconfigure refineries to process domestically produced light sweet crude would involve shutting down the refineries and rebuilding over a period of about 5 years.
The US isn’t willing to stop refining oil for half a decade, plus of course infrastructure projects in the US always take far longer and cost far more than initially anticipated, assuming they ever get completed.
Most of the heavy, sour crude oil the US refines comes from Venezuela, the Gulf of Mexico, and Alberta.
Can’t or won’t. I think processing sour crude is just more economic for the US.
Not exactly. Back in the 80s, the refineries switched over to processing the cheap and “bad” stuff (heavy, sour) into the same products you could easily make with the expensive and “good” stuff (light, sweet). The cost of the “bad” crude is much lower than the domestically produced crude, but the process to turn it into gasoline is more “expensive” based on the infrastructure investment which has already been built.
The US hasn’t built a new refinery in almost 50 years iirc. The lead time to reconfigure refineries to process domestically produced light sweet crude would involve shutting down the refineries and rebuilding over a period of about 5 years.
The US isn’t willing to stop refining oil for half a decade, plus of course infrastructure projects in the US always take far longer and cost far more than initially anticipated, assuming they ever get completed.
Most of the heavy, sour crude oil the US refines comes from Venezuela, the Gulf of Mexico, and Alberta.