It's fair to say refining capacity has been systematically reduced to create a bottleneck for the purposes of price manipulation. Refineries have been running

It's fair to say refining capacity has been systematically reduced to create a bottleneck for the purposes of price manipulation. Refineries have been running at ir near capacity for the last 20 years with no expansion in capacity. Any downturn or lack of demand has however been used as an opportunity to reduce capacity. https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=48636 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=48636 There's no competition because demand outstrips supply.