DOE Briefing on Cause of Distillate Shortages and Price Spikes

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http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/presentations/2000/distillate_market_briefing/sld010.htm

This URL is the last slide from the DOE briefing on why the NorthEast has shortages and high prices of home heating oil, diesel, and kerosene (aka distillates). The entire briefing is interesting and not very long (11 pages). Here's a quote at the end:

"While it has been suggested that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) be used to remedy this distillate price runup, it would not do much to relieve the distillate squeeze that is occurring. An SPR release might ease crude prices briefly, but the recent large increase in distillate prices was mainly due to lack of distillate product, which the SPR would not resolve. "

This seems to confirm that the problem is not lack of crude oil, but the lack of distillate product (ie diesel, home heating oil, kerosene. Earlier quote mentions further risk continues if there are more refinery problems or the existing problems are not fixed soon. So although the briefing emphasizes the increased price of crude and the OPEC cut backs plus the weather as causing the high prices and low supply, it seems that adding SPR crude would not solve the problem. Hence the real problem seems to be the refinery outages.

SO why aren't they analyzing why there are so many refinery outages?

-- slza (slzattas@erols.com), January 29, 2000

Answers

Perhaps they are not studying the refinery problems as they already know the answer.



-- pliney the younger (pliney@puget.sound), January 29, 2000.


slza- if they analyze, they might discover a faulty embedded system. If that happens, it might imply a Y2K problem. If that happens, and people actually found out, the great diety they all worship referred to as "stock market" might get affected. Oh great golden idol, we see nothing but what you want us to see....

-- getting (cynical@home.com), January 29, 2000.

Getting, there ain't no way to say it any better!!

Take care

-- George (jvilches@sminter.com.ar), January 29, 2000.


mmmmmm mmmm delicious sarcasm.....so true as well.

#1 beaurocratic rule----- never seek bad news.

-- Will (righthere@home.now), January 29, 2000.


If they found out...the stock market might be affected

Uh, maybe a few Wall Street gurus started to figure it out when they got billed for their monthly fillup of their mansions' heating oil tank...

Got a K heater and kerosene? :-)

-- cgbg jr (cgbgjr@webtv.net), January 30, 2000.



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