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The refineries made a bet a few decades ago about what type of oil they'd be refining - the stuff from Venezuela, Canada and Russia - heavy sour. This was adva
by shagie 5y ago
The refineries made a bet a few decades ago about what type of oil they'd be refining - the stuff from Venezuela, Canada and Russia - heavy sour.
This was advantageous for a while, but with fracking, there's an abundance of light sweet crude in the US... that the refineries aren't equipped to process. So, we export that oil.
Changing to light sweet crude is a significant investment to the point where switching over isn't economically viable.
https://www.npr.org/podcasts/381444600/marketplace https://www.npr.org/podcasts/381444600/marketplace (the March 7th episode at 4:15 and on)
- londons_explore 5y agoThey could change over in a matter of days, but choose not to because processing heavy sour oil is more profitable - since it can be purchased cheaper. If heavy sour were suddenly unavailable, they'd use light sweet in a heartbeat.